Warning plans for A582 will make ‘no difference whatsoever’ to congestion

New plans to upgrade one of the main routes between South Ribble and Preston will make “no difference whatsoever” to how congested it gets.

That was the warning from the new South Ribble MP Paul Foster, who said he would continue his long-standing campaign to turn the A582 into a dual carriageway between Lostock Hall and Penwortham.

In his final act as leader of South Ribble Borough Council before stepping down from the role after five years, Cllr Foster told a meeting of the authority that Lancashire County Council’s revised vision for the route – details of which were published last week – amounted to no more than “one or two minor improvements to some of the junctions” along the busy travel corridor.

A public consultation is taking place into the proposed changes, which include the removal of three roundabouts at the separate points where the A582 meets Stanifield Lane, Croston Lane and Centurion Way – with each of those intersections becoming traffic-light controlled crossroads or T-junctions.

“The proposals that the county council are now asking for consultation on….[are] not doing any dualling of the [A]582 anywhere. In fact, the main element of the [route] that is suffering the most chronic congestion, they’re doing nothing to,” Cllr Foster said.

The Labour politician also accused County Hall of diverting “public monies…from a critical road network to support the infrastructure needed for two of their own developments – namely, the neighbouring Lancashire Cricket ground and Lancashire Central industrial developments.

The latter of those projects – which sits at the end of the M65 at Cuerden – will require major road changes. As the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed last week, the £70.7m estimated cost of the package of route revamps being proposed by the county council across the A582 and Leyland Road corridors includes the cost of an overhaul of the M65 terminus and upgrades to surrounding junctions.

The changes include the installation of traffic lights on what will be a redesigned – and partially widened – roundabout where the motorway meets the A6 in order to create the new access point to Lancashire Central.

The county council says it remains its “ambition” to fully dual the A582 on the South Ribble and Preston border, but that the improvements it has planned in the meantime reflect the fact travel patterns have changed since that blueprint was developed more than a decade ago.

The authority is preparing a business case to bid for government cash for the revised A582 scheme, money for which was earmarked by the previous administration as part of its plans for how to spend funding redirected from the scrapped northern leg of HS2.

Lancashire County Council committed £25m to the development of highway infrastructure on the A582 back in April 2019.

The LDRS understands that the £6m out of that total which had been spent by spring this year had paid for survey and design work for the now proposed junction improvement scheme – and early engineering works to provide highway access to the Lancashire Central site.

The fully-dualled route had been due to be funded by the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire City Deal – an agreement designed to unlock the cash for the infrastructure improvements needed to create 17,000 new homes and 20,000 new jobs across Central Lancashire.

However, the original widening project – which it was estimated in 2019 would cost £77m, only £7m more than the now more modest, but wider-ranging, plans – was beset by budget issues and never materialised. The City Deal did, however, fund junction upgrades at the ‘tank roundabout’, Chain House Lane, Pope Lane and the Broad Oak roundabout in preparation for a dualling exercise that is now off the table fgpor the foreseeable future.

The budget for the biggest City Deal roads scheme – the Preston Western Distributor Road connecting the A583 in Preston to a new junction 2 of the M55 at Higher Bartle – ballooned from £104m when the project was first conceived to £207m when it was finally constructed between 2019 and 2023.

Meanwhile, Cllr Phil Smith, deputy leader of the Conservative opposition group on South Ribble Council, said his party’s support for dualling the A582 was “well-known” and called for the authority to have an official opinion on the new plans – and submit it as part of the public consultation. He said he and Tory group opposition leader Karen Walton had met with Lancashire County Council’s chief executive to discuss the matter.

Subscribe: Keep in touch directly with the latest headlines from Blog Preston, join our WhatsApp channel and subscribe for our twice-a-week email newsletter. Both free and direct to your phone and inbox.