Grane Road: Is the solution to close it altogether?

THERE’S no doubting the fact that the Grane Road can be a stunningly beautiful road to drive along, as this picture above shows – taken yesterday close to the reservoir car park.

But there is also no denying that, even without the bad weather which so often seems to wrap itself around the road, it’s a dangerous one to drive.

Right along the road, there are plaques, flowers, shrines even to many of the people who have died along the road. Barely a week seems to go by when there isn’t some sort of accident along there.

And this week, the papers have been full of the death of a 21-year-old, killed in a head-on collision along the road.

The investigation is still ongoing but I think one conclusion can already be made: The road remains dangerous.

It has a reputation for being dangerous, and once you’ve navigated it successfully a few times people can become cocky towards the dangers. That’s just human nature and sadly it manifests itself with people over-taking on blind bends, driving too fast or failing to take conditions into account. (Note: I make this as a general point, not in relation to the accident last week).

Lancashire Police regularly stick a speed camera down in the 40mph zone at the Blackburn end, but this in itself is pointless as all that happens is drivers passing the camera going towards Haslingden simply flash the cars heading towards the camera so we all slow down.

Lancashire County Council has tried weight restrictions on the road, to ban lorries, the theory being that if traffic maintains a decent speed and doesn’t get stuck behind lorries, it won’t be tempted into overtaking.

This, in my book, has failed too. Lorries are still on there everyday – and how many have been prosecuted? It’s one thing for Lancashire County Council to pass a bylaw, but it’s little more than a toothless publicity stunt if they don’t follow it up with enforcement. Especially when you consider that the first accident involving a lorry after the restrictions came into effect involved a Lancashire County Council lorry.

The road was closed for three weeks in the summer for improvements, but that doesn’t stop it being like a ice-rink as soon as it falls below zero, which often happens when the temperature is still a few degrees above zero down the road in Haslingden and Blackburn.

According to comments on the Lancashire Telegraph website, the Grane Road has only been a “real” problem since the M65 extension between Whitebirk and Preston opened. Presumably, that made using it as a short-cut from Preston to Rossendale much more suitable.

Residents on the Grane Road claim a 40mph speed limit the whole length of the road would help. Mark Hornby, LCC’s highways officer, rejected this last year by saying: “There is only so much a highways authority can do.
“The rest of it is down to the careful driving of individuals using this road.”

So where does that leave us? The police haven’t got an answer, LCC effectively saying it has run out of ideas, and accidents still occurring.

How about closing it for good? Other than being a rat-run – a scenic one, maybe, but still a rat-run, what purpose does it serve? If, for example, retractable bollards similar to those used in Manchester were put up at the top, allowing only emergency vehicles and buses through, what harm would it do?

Well, all those vehicles driven by people who Mark Hornby seems to think aren’t driving carefully enough at the moment would have to use the M65 and the A56 – roughly five miles further but a heck of a lot safer, and, depending on traffic on the Grane Road, sometimes quicker.

The lorries which shouldn’t be on there (can you imagine LCC running Churchill’s cabinet? “Well, we told the Nazis they couldn’t come over) wouldn’t have any need to go on there. The pubs along there could still be accessed easily, as could the parking around the reservoir. People who want to travel to those places could get there – and generally would travel. There might even be more who travelled along there if they knew it was safer.

Yes, it’s controversial, but what’s the other solution? The map below, from Lancashire County Council shows that the accidents aren’t confined to one part of the Grane Road:

Mark Hornby at the county council is right: safer driving can prevent accidents. But he’s wrong to suggest the county council can’t do more. It still has a dangerous road on its books, one it seems to have run out of ideas for.

The work over the summer when the road was closed proved the surrounding roads can cope – if the M65 and the A56 are the understood alternatives. If LCC and the police could commit to the safer policing of the surrounding minor roads, something they’ve failed to do on the Grane Road, then the safest solution to the Grane Road dilemma may well be to close it all together.