A Penwortham resident has started a campaign against proposals to shut a slip road heading into Preston.

Lancashire County Council says it wants to close off the slip road at the bottom of Liverpool Road where it joins the Guild Way flyover.

As Blog Preston revealed in mid-June the county council has a number of changes for Liverpool Road once the new Penwortham Bypass is complete in early 2020.

These include shutting off the direct access from the A59 to the Guild Way flyover.

The county council say this is to encourage people to use the new Bypass and not go through Penwortham.

Read more: Work to create new Penwortham Bypass junction due to cause disruption

Joanne Frempong has begun the petition which calls on the county council to ‘stop the closure’ of the slip road.

She said: “This decision will also have a detrimental effect on many Penwortham residents and traffic on other roads in the area. Drivers to the east of Liverpool Road will use roads like Manor Lane and Broad Oak Lane to make their way on to the bypass, whilst drivers to the west will be forced to join the already congested traffic on Cop Lane or go under the bypass and then back on themselves to get to the roundabout at the bottom of Leyland Road (or add to the traffic on Strand Road, which is already bad enough).

“The ideas behind the traffic calming measures are noble, but too many measures will completely destroy passing trade for local shops and businesses, whilst the increase in traffic on alternative routes will have major issues for road safety, particularly for the two schools on Cop Lane.

“This decision appears to have been made with little or no consultation with the residents of Penwortham. The sliproad closure is not even identified as part of the town plan, not does it appear on maps of the bypass.

“Many Penwortham residents, like myself, will therefore be completely unaware that this decision has been taken at all. Therefore this petition is to demand that LCC abandon plans to close the slip road and that South Ribble/Penwortham councillors campaign for this on behalf of their residents.”

The petition is on the Change.org website.

Cabinet member for highways and transport county councillor Keith Iddon said: “Once the new bypass opens, we’ll be able to make changes to the road layout around Penwortham to encourage people to use the new bypass, rather than travelling unnecessarily through the town if they don’t need to.

“By reducing the amount of traffic through the town, it will reduce queuing and related pollution, while making it a nicer place for people who live here. This should also help businesses in the area by making it a better place to be.”

Read more: There’s going to be a 10k along the unfinished Penwortham Bypass