Safety aim over 'danger' St Annes shopping street

That’s the vow from a St Annes county councillor determined to see urgent improvements to road safety in an increasingly busy area of town.

After a bus shelter was left wrecked by a lorry smash on Monday, County Coun Ed Nash spoke of his determination to do everything he can to make St Albans Road safer.

“It’s the most dangerous area of my division of St Annes South,” said Coun Nash, who also represents the area on Fylde Council.

“The bus shelter smash was only the latest example of a concerning incident there and we have to be so grateful there was no-one waiting in the bus shelter at the time.

“There have been problems there for years and this incident only adds to the need to sort out parking and delivery to this area.

“Pedestrians live in fear of vehicles mounting the pavement.

“We need action now and I am taking it up with Lancashire County Council as a key priority.

“I intend to meet the county councillor responsible for highways at the scene and am aiming to call a community meeting to discuss people’s concerns.

“My fellow Fylde councillors for the ward are fully behind this and the resolution for this year is to finally get something done.”

Coun Nash said there have been problems for years – and it is getting worse.

“It is a very busy shopping street and, with new businesses opening and expanding, meaning more customers and deliveries, it is getting busier all the time” he said,

“We had a parking plan set up five years ago which was pulled by the then ruling body at County Hall.

“All we got instead were the red bollards on the stretch of pavement between Holmefield Road and Trafalgar Street.

“With a new Government and better budgets, I am pushing for the plan to be set up again.

“I have lobbied also for the buses to go along Church Road to St Annes Road East rather than along St Albans Road.

“That would reduce the congestion but apparently St Albans Road is a high use bus area, which has meant the current route has been maintained but again that needs revisiting.”

The bus shelter crash came little more than 36 hours after another, unrelated, dramatic road incident at the nearby junction of Church Road and St Thomas Road.

A police chase ended with a car smashed through a garden in Church as it flipped onto its roof.

The driver of a Honda Civic fled after officers tried to pull them over in St Annes early on Sunday, said the county’s traffic police unit as it tweeted a picture of the scene.

“They thought making off at speed, flipping their car through a set of traffic lights and very nearly parking it in the front room of this house was a better idea,” a spokesman said. The force did not say why the car was being pulled over, but said nobody was hurt – with one person arrested.

No-one could be contacted at the property when the Express called but Coun Viv Willder, a ward councillor and the current St Annes town mayor, said: “What a mess it made and I hope it was just a one-off.

“It’s a busy junction but I can’t recall a major problem there before.”