Campaigners fighting to reduce the speed limit on a cobbled lane are celebrating after council chiefs backed them.

Residents and councillors were left baffled last year after a 30mph sign was erected on Clinkham Road in Great Harwood, favoured by sat navs as a short cut between Edge End Road and Blackburn Old Road.

The single-track road has been plagued over the past few years by HGVs and double decker buses getting stuck.

Lancashire County Council say they will now reduce the speed limit on part of the road to 20mph in a bid to reduce accidents.

Lynn Wilson, chair of Great Harwood Civic Society and a former ward councillor, said she was ‘absolutely chuffed to bits’.

She said: “Hopefully this is only the beginning. It really needs better signage and slow markings down the road and something to indicate that animals and children use it.”

John Duckworth, chair of Great Harwood Regeneration Board, said it was a ‘move in the right direction’.

He said: “For the life of me I can’t understand why they didn’t do it originally with no cost at all. It needs something to indicate that this is not an ordinary road.

“The back of my house looks onto Clinkham Road and the number of large vans and delivery vehicles that go down it is ridiculous.

“Most local people know to avoid it. I’m glad they have listened to the residents.”

Hundreds of signatures were raised last year in a petition to reduce the speed limit and restrict access.

A traffic analysis survey was also carried out by the county council but showed there was ‘good movement’ of traffic and no changes were needed.

The new 20mph speed limit will cover a distance of 65m in a westerly direction from its junction with Edge Lane.

County Councillor Tim Ashton, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “We’re lowering the speed limit to 20mph in residential areas across Lancashire and Clinkham Road is part of these plans.

“Records show that nearly seven out of ten accidents in which cyclists or pedestrians are killed or seriously injured happen within 30mph limits.”

Plans for advisory speed limits outside Great Harwood primaries Our Lady and St Hubert’s and St Bartholomew’s are also being considered.