A582 changes move closer

A long-planned overhaul designed to reduce congestion on one of the busiest routes in Central Lancashire has moved a step closer after planning permission was granted for a key element of the scheme.

A double roundabout on the A582 in South Ribble is to be removed and replaced with a series of new ‘smart’ junctions that highways bosses hope will improve journey times on the notoriously congested road

Lancashire County Council’s development control committee has now given the green light to the changes to the Croston Road junction in Farington, which are part of a broader £77m revamp of the route between Lostock Hall and Penwortham.

The aspect of the scheme under the microscope by the committee involves the ripping up of the twin roundabouts where the A582 meets Croston Road and Centurion Way.   

They will be replaced with three interlinked and signal-controlled T-junctions, which are intended to improve traffic flow along the A582 by giving priority to those vehicles travelling along it.  Specialist kit will also prioritise buses and heavy goods vehicles at the traffic lights.

Meanwhile, Centurion Way will be re-routed to enhance safety and six ‘toucan’ crossings – which can be used by pedestrians and cyclists – will be installed, connecting to shared footways and cycle paths.

The meeting heard that £57.9m of government cash provisionally allocated to the wider project hinged, to a degree, on local planning approval.

That funding was announced by the Department for Transport last July – to be supplemented by £19m already pledged by the county council itself.

The authority’s director of environment and planning, Jonathan Edwards, told committee members that without planning permission, there was a “risk around…securing” the government’s contribution.

A business case was last year set to be prepared for Whitehall officials to examine as the last stage of that process – and no final government decision has yet been made.  The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked County Hall when – and whether – the document had been submitted, but had not received a response by the time of publication..      

Although the county council itself was the applicant for the permission, the cross-party, independent committee of councillors nevertheless had to judge the proposal on its own merits – in the same way as it had been assessed by the County Hall planning officers who had recommended its approval.

Five public objections were lodged to the Croston Road junction project, including from nearby Leyland Trucks, which said the encroachment of the new set-up onto land reserved for industrial use under South Ribble Borough Council’s local plan jeopardised the firm’s future expansion plans  at the location.

However, county council planning officer Peter Gittins said the planning department had concluded there would be “no adverse impact” on the business – and that it would actually benefit from some of the traffic priority measures proposed.

He added that the land in question was “physically separated” by the river and currently “lacks highway access, limiting its employment development potential”.

Committee member, County Cllr Hamish Mills, expressed concern at the volume of tree cover that would be lost as part of the scheme, stating that the existing foliage provided “a more visually appealing, larger screening” than the noise reduction fencing that was proposed to be installed to protect nearby properties.

However, Jonathan Haine, head of development control, said the trees to be removed were almost exclusively within the highway boundary and that their felling was necessary in order to accommodate the widening of the A582.  He added that they had been planted when the route was constructed in the 1970s.

“They’re not veteran trees…so you’ve got to look at the losses in that context,” he said.

He added that a condition imposed on the permission in relation to landscaping meant that additional planting would take place upon completion of the project where there was “space to do so”.   Planting of greenery on sites away from the A582  will also be undertaken in order to fulfil a requirement for the scheme to deliver a 10 percent “net gain” in biodiversity compared to the existing land use. 

HIGHWAY HISTORY

The Croston Road project is part of a heavily scaled-back version of a longstanding vision to create a three-mile dual carriageway along the A582 – between Lostock Lane and the Broad Oak roundabout in Penwortham – first unveiled more than a decade ago.

That was part of the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal – the £434m government-backed initiative to deliver the roads and other infrastructure needed to build 17,000 new homes and create 20,000 extra jobs in the area.

Some key junctions on the A582 – including at Pope Lane – were widened in readiness for the revamp that was expected to come.

However, by early 2019 – with the Broughton Bypass completed, the Penwortham Bypass progressing and work on the Preston Western Distributor Road under way – the overarching A582 project appeared perpetually stalled.

The scheme was facing what were described by City Deal officials as “budget pressures”, with the need to create a dual carriageway-sized bridge over the West Coast Mainline thought to be one of the biggest financial pressure points.

At around the same time, the future of the project – which, at that point, also included plans to create an extra lane in each direction on the B5253 Flensburg Way, between the ‘tank roundabout’ and Longmeanygate – became integral to a controversial proposal to build 1,100 homes on the Pickering’s Farm site in Penwortham.

Locals and councilors said the road widening was vital in order to accommodate the additional traffic that would be created.

The then South Ribble Borough Council leader, Paul Foster – who is now South Ribble’s MP – said from 2020 onwards that the housing must not be built unless or until the dualling of the A582 was guaranteed.

After an appeal against the council’s refusal of permission for the Pickering’s Farm plans, the government gave the huge estate the go-ahead in November 2023 – just weeks after it had included an upgraded A582 in its ‘Network North’ vision for how to spend money saved by cancelling HS2 north of Birmingham.

However, in 2024, Lancashire County Council revealed revised plans for the A582, which swerved a full dualling and instead focused on junction improvements and the use of traffic light technology to reduce the congestion that users of the route so often experience during rush hour.

It is that scheme which is now poised to be realised – 13 years after its more ambitious forerunner was first seriously mooted.

As well as the changes to the double roundabout at Croston Road, the roundabout at the junction of Lostock Lane, Farington Road, Stanifield Lane and Watkin Lane will be removed and replaced with a crossroads layout, but still controlled by signals.

A raft of traffic-calming measures along Leyland Road and Watkin Lane, designed to discourage rat-running and promote cycling and walking, are also planned – and the roundabout at the northern end of Leyland Road will be reconfigured.