Dozens more roads added to resurfacing plans

Dozens more roads have been added to the number that will be resurfaced by Lancashire County Council this year.

The authority decided in May that it would add £5m to the highways budget to boost the tally of pre-planned surface upgrades and “preventative” treatments carried out by next spring.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has now obtained the full list of projects, which shows that it incorporates 59 routes across 41 individual schemes in the county council’s patch – an area that excludes Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen.

That takes the total number of roads to be upgraded during the 2026/27 financial year to more than 160 and the overall projects to 121.

The additional work will be the usual mix of full resurfacing and so-called ‘surface dressing’ which makes up the scheduled highways maintenance job sheet each year. The latter is a special process that not only improves the condition of the carriageway, but seals it to prevent future damage caused by water entering cracks in the road.

The listed schemes are separate to the ‘reactive’ repair of potholes as they appear through the year.

Reform UK cabinet member for highways and transport Warren Goldsworthy reiterated at a recent full council meeting a previous message that the additional projects would be determined solely by the “data” showing which routes were in need of attention – and not by councillors clamouring on behalf of their own areas.

Conservative group leader Aidy Riggott asked for confirmation that “no members were offered the opportunity to lobby…formally or informally for this extra funding in a way that was not open to all councilors, regardless of which political party they were in”.

County Cllr Goldsworthy said nobody had been given a “sweet deal” and that all councillors had “the same access” to him to make the case for work on roads in the places they represent.

The Lancaster City Council area is in line for more than a quarter of the extra schemes – a total of 11 – the most of any of Lancashire’s 12 district authority areas. Two of those districts – South Ribble and West Lancashire – will get none.

Under County Hall policy, pre-planned resurfacing work must be dictated by the priorities of the county council’s 15-year roads strategy, which has this year entered its third and final phase with a focus on maintaining the overall condition of the main A, B and C-classified routes, rather than taking a ‘worst first’ approach to repairs.

County Cllr Goldsworthy also confirmed that the extra £5m in funding for 2026/27 had come from the “overall underspend” in the county council’s capital projects programme during the previous financial year.

That was in response to a call for clarity from County Cllr Riggott after the LDRS was told back in May that the cash had been taken from the authority’s reserves.

Since then, figures have shown the highways maintenance budget for 2025/26 undershot its £71.9m spending plans by £10.4m – part of a council-wide capital underspend of almost £113m in that 12-month period.

County Cllr Goldsworthy said it had initially been “discussed that [the additional £5m for 2026/27] would come from the transitional reserves, [but] that was subsequently decided against”.

“That was a decision I was not part of,” he added.

The LDRS has asked the county council for details of which elements of last year’s highways maintenance pot went unspent.

Back in February, County Hall set a £20.9m budget for routine, scheduled road surface work in 2026/27, within a wider £72m highways budget.

The overall amount includes £28m set aside for filling potholes that materialise during the year ahead and meet the ‘intervention’ level for repair – meaning that they are at least 40mm deep.

Tranches of the £72m are also reserved for the maintenance of bridges and other structures (£6.5m), traffic lights (£750k), streetlamps (£5.3m) and drainage (£1.9m).

ADDITIONAL ROAD RESURFACING LIST IN FULL

These are the schemes that will be funded by the extra £5m added to Lancashire County Council’s highways maintenance programme for 2026/27, including details of the exact location and nature of the work:

Burnley

Pendle Way – extent to be determined – surface dressing

Chorley

Lower Burgh Way – from Dale View to Burgh Hill Road roundabout and from Burgh Hill Road roundabout to Booth Avenue – resurfacing

Peel Street/Belmont Road/Mayfield Avenue/Rivington Drive, Adlington – resurfacing

Fylde

A584, Preston New Road – Lily Cottage to Lower Lane – resurfacing

Lytham Road – extension of already approved scheme – resurfacing

Hyndburn

B6237, Queens Road and Penny House Lane – from Whalley Road to Burnley Road – surface dressing

Charter Street, Accrington – from Willows Lane to Pickup Street – surface dressing

Lancaster Avenue and Gloucester Avenue, Accrington – from Whalley Road to Queens Road West – resurfacing

Plantation Street/Plantation Road, Accrington – from Abbey Street to Arden Park – surface dressing

Southwood Drive, Accrington – from Manchester Road to the end – surface dressing

Lancaster

A6, Scotland Road – from Burton Road roundabout to Market Street traffic light junction – surface dressing

B5273, Oxcliffe Road, Heysham – from Southgate to Westcliffe Drive – surface dressing

B6254, Kirkby Lonsdale Road, Over Kellet – from end of C-class section to Craggs Hill – surface dressing

Cinderbarrow Lane – from the reservoir to the bridge over the motorway – surface dressing

Earl Street and surrounding routes, Skerton – Albert Road, Earl Street, Derby Road, Lord Street, Lune Street, Lune Terrace – resurfacing

Hutton Roof Road, Whittington – from Cumbria boundary Saddler Nook Lane – surface dressing

Marshaw Wyre – from the cattle grid outside Marshaw Farm to the cattle grid at the summit – resurfacing

Mewith Lane – from Eskew Beck Bridge to Lowgill Lane – drainage issues

Rakehouse Brow – from 100m after the cattle grid beyond Jubilee Tower to outside Emmetts Methodist Church – resurfacing

Rose Acre Lane, – from Milnthorpe Road to Flat Lane – surface dressing

Westgate Avenue, Morecambe – extent to be confirmed – surface dressing

Pendle

Brogden Lane, Barnoldswick – from Bower Close to Stocks Lane – surface dressing

Carr Hall Road, Barrowford – from Wheatley Lane Road to Carr Road – surface dressing

Gisburn Old Road – from Barnoldswick Road to the end – surface dressing

Knotts Lane, Colne – from the old brickworks to Shelfield Lane – surface dressing

Preston

A6, Garstang Road – sections from Blackpool Road to Broughton roundabout – resurfacing

Greaves Town Lane/Larches Lane/Larches Avenue, Ashton – resurfacing

Plungington Road – from Aqueduct Street to Blackpool Rd – surface dressing

Silk Mill Lane, Inglewhite – from Inglewhite Road to Langley Rd – resurfacing

Ribble Valley

Bolton by Bowland Road, Bolton by Bowland – extent to be determined – surface dressing

Clitheroe Road – from Whins Lane to A59, Clitheroe Bypass – resurfacing

Clitheroe Road, Whalley – from Whiteacre Lane to Wisewell Lane – surface dressing

Newton Road – from Wood End Farm to newly-laid stretch at Newton By Bowland Village – resurfacing

Trough Road – from the cattle grid at the summit to No.1 Lancaster Cottages – resurfacing

Trough Road – from No.1 Lancaster Cottages to Newton Road – resurfacing

Rossendale

Rawstron Street and surrounding roads – Lloyd Street/Rawstron Street/Tong Lane/William Street – resurfacing

Booth Road, Stacksteads – from Fearns Moss to Newchurch Road – surface dressing

Regent Street/Bury Road, Haslingden – from A680, Blackburn Road to A680, Manchester Road – surface dressing

Eastgate, Whitworth – from Wallbank Drive to Wallbank Drive – surface dressing

Maden Road, Bacup – from Bankside Lane to the end – surface dressing

Wyre

Ascot Road and Aintree Road Loop and surrounding roads, Thornton-Cleveleys – Ascot Road/Aintree Road/Sandown Road stretch of Cherl Drive to house no. 39 – resurfacing