Update on junction plans for major route between Blackpool and St Annes

Fylde Council planners have agreed an application by Kensington Developments to change a condition attached to the approval for 1,150 homes being built at Richmond Point, off Queensway.

It means the company, which has started work on the site, can now build 165 properties before the new Queensway traffic junction is finished, compared to 65 as previously agreed.

In the meantime access to the estate will be from a temporary junction opening directly onto Queensway.

New designs for the junction are currently being drawn up which are expected to see a proposed roundabout replaced with traffic light controls.

A report which went to the last meeting of Fylde Council's planning committee says the variation is "required in order to allow the continued delivery of housing on the site" while final designs for the junction are considered.

The report adds this "is to be varied from a roundabout to a signalised junction".

It says highways chiefs have deemed the temporary access "is capable of serving a development of up to 165 dwellings" and "would have no adverse impact on the safe and efficient operation of the surrounding highway network."

A spokesman for Kensington Developments said: "The planning decision relates only to the construction of the Queensway junction which must now be constructed no later than the occupation of the 165th property.

"The Queensway junction is currently being designed by Lancashire County Council and we are awaiting their design drawings, a planning application for the final design will be submitted to Fylde Borough Council in due course."

The scheme is separate to proposals for a link road to connect Cypress Point with the Whitehills estate and the M55.