A COUNCILLOR has slammed his own party for not spending money to change a busy road junction where a “fatality is waiting to happen”.
Labour’s Shadsworth and Whitebirk councillor Jim Shorrock said that he has been campaigning for five years to change the layout or improve the signage at the junction of Accrington Road and Audley Range, Blackburn, near to Accrington Road Community Centre.
At the junction, the road splits into two lanes.
Drivers coming from Blackburn should be in the left-hand lane to go straight ahead towards Accrington, and in the right lane to go up Audley Range.
But Coun Shorrock said that a large proportion of drivers were ignoring the rules and putting others in danger.
He said: “Most taxi drivers and young drivers get in the right hand lane to carry straight on and cut everyone up.
“It’s a major problem for people living in my ward and I’m getting a lot of complaints.
“I’ve been told that the council doesn’t have any money to spend on changing anything, but they’d soon find it if a fatality happened.
“It wouldn’t cost mega money to improve the signage or to change the layout, but I don’t get any replies to my emails and I’m getting nowhere fast.
“That is a very tight right turn into Audley Range and there will be a major accident soon. It’s scandalous.”
A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said: “The council is aware of the issue, but signs and road markings are already in place.
“It is down to drivers to take notice of them.”
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