AN ACCRINGTON resident has made a plea for traffic calming measures along Queens Road West.

The resident, who does not wish to be named, called for the measures after revealing the road has been turned into a "rat run."

She wrote a letter to Accrington Area Council saying she was concerned that traffic would increase even more, once a new sports complex opens near Moorhead High School in 2003.

She said: "The chances of an accident will increase because the traffic will have to use Queens Road West to access the new complex. At present the road is used as a rat run to avoid Hyndburn Road."

Hyndburn Council's highways and traffic engineer, Matthew Hargreaves, said the council was aware of the problems and was pushing to get the road placed on a hit list for a safety scheme run by Lancashire County Council.

The need for traffic calming along the road was also discussed during a meeting of the traffic liaison group whose members consist of representatives from Hyndburn Council, Lancashire County Council and the police.

Mr Hargreaves said: "We hold these meetings every three months to share ideas and look at certain areas which need addressing. We have put forward Queens Road West to go on a list of streets for possible traffic calming under the Local Safety Scheme.

"We have to put a bid forward to see if we can get some money to spend on a scheme to help reduce the number of accidents along the road. But now we are waiting to get the accident figures from the county council so we can put our case forward before the end of the financial year."

He added: "This is not the first time we've heard concerns about the road. We've been in touch with St Christopher's school about it.

"In the mornings the road is very busy and at night when it is quiet, the road is wide so people do speed down it. We are going to flag it up as a problem with the county council and look at doing a traffic survey."