Several residents in the Knott End and Preesall area have contacted me with their concerns about becoming trapped by two un-connected roadworks at either end of Pilling Lane and Green Dick’s Lane, with poor communication from Lancashire County Council.
I have looked across the Lancashire County Council highways bulletin map for the village, and it is quite confusing.
Currently, One side of Pilling Lane has a closure notice in place from 11 May 2026, 10:00 am – 23 May 2026, 12:59am, whilst some works are done:
Confusingly, another roadwork notification is in place on Pilling Lane from 13 May 2026, 07:00 am – 24 Jun 2026, 07:00pm:
As things stand, engineers on the currently-closed section of Pilling Lane advise that this work will be finished by next Thursday (28th May).
Separately, on the 11th May, residents on Green Dick’s Lane were given advance notice of a month-long set of roadworks at the other end of Pilling Road, commencing on 22nd May:
Road signage now says that this work on Green Dick’s Lane starts on the 25th May:
All told, there are 8 roadwork notices in the village in May:
Residents are confused, and I share their frustration and worry about being locked in the village.
Frustratingly, Lancashire County Council’s highways team do not seem to co-ordinate roadwork and permit requests well, essentially seeming to green-light permits for road closures without recognising the wider impact on the road network. This means that disruption caused by utility providers like United Utilities, Electricity North West, Openreach, Cadent etc. occurs with little to no impact assessment. Between this and their own pothole roadworks whenever they occasionally appear, the result is chaotic! We’ve seen baffling decisions like the longstanding A6 chaos in Barton where cones and temporary lights are left in place for months causing hours-long misery for drivers even though they could easily be moves aside during evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
I’ve sought some urgent reassurances from Lancashire County Council that there will be no overlap and that residents will always be able to access at least one end of Pilling Lane and Green Dick’s Lane, and as soon as I receive any response I will be posting this below.
