A councillor has spoken out over "danger" potholes on a busy Lancashire road.

Motorists have long complained over a section of the A56 between the Tesco at Haslingden and the Rising Bridge with some describing them like "trenches".

Rossendale Borough councillor Samara Barnes said she had been inundated with more complaints after accidents on the stretch.

National Highways said they had been made aware of the issues on the site and 'reactive maintenance repairs' had already taken place last weekend. Further work was being planned over June and inspectors would be checking the route regularly.

Cllr Barnes said: “It is really hazardous and there are several large potholes and defects of different sizes.

“I have drivers contact me and there are particular concerns from motorcyclists who are finding the stretch of road very dangerous.

“Something needs to be done and it needs to be done quite quickly. People ae taking their life in their own hands trying to navigate the road.

“I know this has been going on for a number of months and is a long-standing issue for motorists who use the section on a regular basis.”

The Helmshore ward councillor said she had raised a complaint with Highways Northwest.

She added: “Just this week people have raised issues with damage to their vehicles.

“I have contacted National Highways team several times and I am awaiting confirmation of what action they will take.”

One driver who uses the route regularly said: “That section of road is terrible and there really needs to be more action done quickly. They are like trenches.”

National Highways said work had been planned in three stages.

National Highways Service Manager (Maintenance) Dawn Connick said: “We know that good quality roads are important to the millions of drivers that use our network each day.

“We’ve been made aware of the issues on this stretch of the A56 in Haslingden and these will be addressed in three stages of short and longer-term activity:

“Ongoing reactive maintenance repairs, some of which have already taken place over the previous weekend (5 May).

“We will continue to address safety critical defects through maintenance.

“More extensive patching works, currently anticipated to take place from the end of June and resurfacing – surveys for this work have now been completed. Once these surveys have been reviewed, we will determine the treatment type before commencing the works at a date to be confirmed.

“In the meantime, our inspectors are checking the route regularly and any repairs will be carried out as necessary.”

Earlier this year, Lancashire county councillors demanded more of a say over pothole repairs, claiming that they are being made to look "stupid" in front of residents.

In 2019/20, the tally – for an area which excludes Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen was just under 50,000.

There were 11,000 repair jobs in County Hall’s “work in progress” pile.  

That is a near-trebling of the 4,000 figure that was considered the upper limit on capacity as recently as five years ago.

Under the current system, the so-called repair of potholes as they appear throughout the year is carried out once a defect has reached a depth of at least 40mm.