National Highways must be held accountable for ‘botched’ A585 jobs, says campaigner

A road campaigner has slammed Government-owned National Highways as a disgrace for its work on the ‘botched’ A585 bypass at Windy Harbour and ‘dangerous’ Norcross Roundabout.

Mark Owens says National Highways (NH) has not taken the issue of chronic congestion on the road seriously and has simply moved the problem from one area of it to another.

And Mr Owens says NH has compounded the issue by implementing road measures that have made Norcross Roundabout a serious danger to motorists.

He says NH needs to be held accountable and he plans to take the issue to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), which  monitors National Highways, and the Transport Minister.

The campaigner hit out after NH told him that any further efforts to reduce congestion on the A585 would require considerably more time and “might be addressed by a potential future programme.”

He said this was unacceptable after nearly £170 million had already been spent on a project which was supposed to have solved the problem.

Mr Owens said: “National Highways’ response is an admission of failure and not that of an organisation that is serious in taking responsibility.

“NH is a national disgrace and has abused the taxpayer to the tune of circa £170m to produce a totally botched job.

“This cannot go unchallenged and NH must be held to account; failing any timeous remedial action, this leaves the option of a formal complaint to the transport minister and the regulator ORR “

The busy A585 acts as the main route in and out of Fleetwood and the northern Fylde peninsula, stretching approximately 14 miles from Fleetwood to Kirkham and linking up with the M55.

The A585 Windy Harbour to Skippool bypass was a new road which fully opened in March 2024 to relieve severe traffic congestion between Windy Harbour and Skippool and features a new dual carriageway that bypasses Little Singleton village, connecting the M55 motorway to the A585.

It was intended to create smoother traffic flow towards Fleetwood but some motorists says hold-ups are still an issue.

The Norcross roundabout junction links up Fleetwood Road, Norcross Lane and the A585 at Thornton, but confusing lane markings have caused huge problems for motorists, not helped by the introduction of traffic lights.

There have been a number of accidents as confused drivers take the wrong lanes.

Responding to Mr Owen’s comments National Highways says its priority is to make the Norcross roundabout safe before any other additional measures can be looked at.

And NH stated previously that the new bypass had made a difference to congestion.

A spokesperson for National Highways said: “Safety is our number one priority. We are progressing changes to the road markings on the junction and a reduction in the speed limit on the northbound approach.

“These measures have been identified following extensive survey work, including detailed assessments of driver behaviour at the junction.

“This work is expected to start, and be completed, in March this year. We continue to work closely with all stakeholders to continually monitor and improve our network.”