BOLTON Council is to ban heavy lorries from one of the busiest roads in Bolton town centre -- because it is too weak to take them.

A 17-tonne weight restriction is to be imposed on Bradshawgate, effectively banning its use by large vehicles.

Buses will be exempt from the ruling, though, since they weigh around 10 tonnes.

In March the BEN revealed that Bradshawgate was one of three areas in the town centre the council had safety worries about.

The other two, bridges at Great Moor Street and Newport Street have already had width restrictions imposed on them, reducing them to a single lane.

For Bradshawgate, the council's concern stems from the fact that railway tunnels run underneath the road and it has been established that it has the potential to collapse under extreme traffic conditions.

Council assistant environment director Adrian Golland told the BEN restrictions are being imposed as a precautionary measure as part of their bridge strengthening and refurbishment programme. "The restrictions have been recommended because the road may too weak for its maximum permissible weight," he said. "But in reality it is unlikely that it would ever reach this because that would mean it would have to be nose-to-tail with heavy traffic which just doesn't happen."

The tunnels are owned by Railtrack and the council say they will carry out strengthening work to enable the bridge to take traffic up to 24 tonnes as a statutory requirement.

Any further strengthening work after this would have to be paid for by the council and Mr Golland said they would assess at the time how viable this would be.

"It is a safety measure to make sure it never gets overloaded and no-one wants a catastrophe," said Mr Golland.

He added that signs would soon be placed on Bradshawgate informing lorry drivers of the restriction.

He said: "The vast majority of road users coming into the town centre are below the 17-tonne weight restriction and we do not envisage any major traffic problems as a result.

"We have identified three major retailers, Morrisons, Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer who may have to change their delivery routes and we will be contacting them directly to discuss this."

A spokesman for Marks and Spencer said they had been informed of the council's intentions and didn't envisage any problems.

He said: "We believe the council will re-direct heavy traffic through diversions and we cannot see it being a problem for our delivery lorries or for any customers trying to get to the store."

The announcement brought criticism from Tory deputy council leader Cllr John Walsh.

He said: "We would never dispute that the work should be done. It is an issue of safety so we would never oppose it but I do think it will bring traffic problems.

"We warned of this and were cried down, now it is happening. The Labour group has been in control for 20 years but now this problem has arisen they have to take action as a matter of emergency.

"They should have invested in the town's road network earlier to prevent this."

Cllr Guy Harkin, deputy council leader and cabinet member for the environment, said the problem was a legacy of the Tory Government.

He said: "When the Tories privatised the railway they decided Railtrack is only obliged to carry out strengthening work up to 24 tonnes."