A BAN on lorries using a busy East Lancashire "A" road has only pushed the problem elsewhere, it was claimed today.

The number of lorries driving through Guide has surged since drivers were told they could no longer use Grane Road between Blackburn and Haslingden, homeowners said.

They say HGVs are now using School Lane and the B6236 Roundhill Road, which runs parallel with Grane Road.

Mum-of-three Michelle Grierson, said she was so fed up with the noise that she was no longer sitting in her front lounge during the day and was considering working full time to get some peace.

The Lottice Lane resident said she had counted 52 lorries between 5.30am and 1pm in just five days since the ban on lorries over 7.5 tonnes was brought in by Lancashire County Council last Monday.

She said: "It hasn't solved the problem, it has just shifted it elsewhere.

"It is a busy road now whereas before we never had any traffic apart from the odd car every two hours or so. It is ridiculous, it could drive me mad "The whole house shakes, even though I have double glazing.

"I can't sit in my lounge, I have to sit in my conservatory. I don't know what it is going to be like in the summer when I want to go into my garden."

She said she would now look to work full time as a credit controller at UK Hardware in Clayton-le-Moors to get away from the noise.

Neighbour Shirley Rock-cliffe, 70, said: "It is more or less continuous. This is supposed to be a country road but it isn't any more, the problem has just shifted from one side to the other.

"Three of my daughters live around here and they have all said they have noticed more wagons." Brian Crane, landlord of the Farmers Glory pub on Roundhill Road, said: "There has been a marked increase in noise but more than anything else there is the accident factor. We have lots of accidents down here and this is not going to help."

Residents in Belthorn have also complained of an increase in traffic.

But Tony Hodbod, of Grane Residents' Association, said the ban had made a "big difference".

He said he had "every sympathy" for those suffering from the change in traffic flow but added: "If I was an HGV driver it would be one of the last roads on earth I would take. It is not easy and it is not convenient."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "The change must be given time to bed down before we are able to judge its effects.

"We will be liaising with the police to enforce the weight limit on Grane Road and at the same time we will be monitoring any change it may have caused to traffic levels in the area."

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