A FORMER council leader has entered into the long-running row over the development of a new industrial estate and access road in Kearsley.

Bolton Council has revealed controversial plans to create an industrial park on the former tip at Singing Clough and build a new access road from Bolton Road to the existing Lyon Industrial Estate.

But since the news broke, residents in the area have been split down the middle.

The new road plan has been welcomed by people on Pilkington Road and Springfield Road, the two routes which currently bear the brunt of the heavy lorries travelling to and from the Lyon Estate.

But other residents living on Bolton Road, Park View, Stoneclough Road and Jackson Street are opposed to the new access road, arguing that it would increase the congestion on Bolton Road.

And now John Rothwell, former leader of Kearsley UDC from 1965 to 1971 is calling on Bolton Council to demand that the Ministry of Transport re-opens the railway bridge it built across the M61 in the late 60s.

He claims that the Ministry of Transport made the problem and it should solve it.

"The traffic problems arose in the late 60s when £1m was spent on a railway bridge that was closed the week before they opened the M61 motorway. It's outrageous. It has never been used in more than 30 years."

And Mr Rothwell poured scorn on the council's objections to re-opening the bridge.

In last week's BEN, Steve Burns, Bolton council's head of economic and physical development, said Salford Council would oppose the scheme because it would take heavy traffic through a country park and a residential area.

He also said that there was some doubt whether the bridge would be strong enough to carry lorries.

Mr Rothwell stormed: "That bridge was built to take trains full of stone and iron from the mineral works. It beggars belief that they claim it could not carry HGVs."

He added: "And saying that it would divert the traffic through a country park is also rubbish. It would take it alongside it."

The development of the Singing Clough site is part of a Government approved £71m scheme designed to breathe new life into Farnworth and Little Hulton.

Mr Rothwell said: "Bolton and Salford Councils keep going on about how they are co-operating over this re-development. Well, if that's the case, the first thing they can do is make use of that railway bridge to take traffic away from Kearsley which is already too congested."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.