Manual control to ease Tarleton traffic delays

Temporary traffic lights that have been causing lengthy delays on one of the main routes towards and away from Preston should be overridden in order to ease queues, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands.

The permit for the works being carried out by Electricity North West at the junction of the A59 and A565, near Tarleton in West Lancashire, requires manual operation of the signals between 7am and 7pm every day.

The firm says it has staff who can “intervene” in how the four-way lights function during those hours.

Serious congestion has been reported on all approaches – even during off-peak times – since the work necessitating the temporary controls began on Monday.

The permanent lights that usually operate at the location, yards from Aldi’s Tarleton store, are currently switched off.

The busy junction – where Liverpool Road, Southport Old Road, Windgate and Church Road all meet –  is the point at which traffic heading south of

Preston diverges either towards Ormskirk and Liverpool, on the A59, or Southport, on the A565.   Preston-bound traffic coming from Southport and Liverpool also merges at that point.

The LDRS understands that it was taking around 20 minutes for motorists heading towards Preston from Liverpool Road to get through the junction early on Thursday afternoon, with queuing vehicles heading back towards Rufford.   Ten-minute delays were also reported on Southport Old Road at the same time.

The works are set to continue for another week before their expected completion next Friday (14th November).

The roadworks permit, which was issued by Lancashire County Council in its capacity as the highways authority, also insists that work continues over the weekend and that the portable signals are removed as soon as they are no longer needed.

A spokesperson for SP Electricity North West said: “Teams are currently working on a £670k scheme which will see 3km of new underground electricity cables installed.

“This essential work will add long-term resilience to the power network and provide more than 1,000 properties across Tarleton and the surrounding areas with a more reliable supply.

“We appreciate working in the highway is disruptive and to help minimise disruption, we have traffic management operatives on site from 7am until 7pm, seven days a week to intervene and operate the signals.

“All work, agreed by the local authority, was communicated in advance as teams hand delivered letters and used advanced warning signage.”