The extra costs of improvement work needed on a new £18.5m access road after lorries struggled to turn onto it will not be borne by Blackpool Council or council tax payers.
That was the message from the council after the spectacle of large vehicles being filmed as they failed to negotiate a tight turn on the costly new Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone access road.
The access road, which opened to drivers on May 5, provides a vital link to Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone and is designed to improve connectivity for businesses and residents while helping to ease congestion on surrounding roads, including School Road.
Blackpool Council says the road is already proving a major success, providing the vital access it was intended to offer.
However, after the road first opened, HGV and large lorry drivers immediately appeared to be encountering major issues on a right right-hand turn, with some drivers forced to mount the pavement in order to complete the manoeuvre.
Film footage of traffic on the road shot by Blackpool-based YouTuber ‘A Walk on the Wild Side’ shows three heavy goods vehicles failing to negotiate the turn. The video creator is heard saying in the film: “Mayhem at Blackpool’s newest junction… This seems to be a bit of a problem. I think they’re going to have to look into this.”
Blackpool Council then issued a statement in June saying it would be carrying out some minor improvements to the turning junction on Common Edge Road.
Now the improvements are complete, finished on Saturday June 27 – but an opposition Conservative councillor has asked who will foot the bill for those works.
At a recent full council meeting, Cllr Julie Sloman asked: “There was an oversight by the consultant and designer who did the road going into the new enterprise zone, so that the vans and lorries couldn’t turn around.
“I wanted to ask if the costs that have been borne by that mistake are being borne by the designer or are we paying for it?”
Cllr Paula Burdess, Cabinet Member for Street Scene and Highways, told her, just days before the work was complete: “There is no further cost to the council. The cost for any changes has been met by the designer.
“I hasten to add that since that complaint, since that incident happened, there were no further observations of that nature.
“So it’s not just about the design, it’s about the changing driver behaviour and becoming accustomed as drivers to the new road layout.”
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