Driver Trainer and Promenade Road Works

Optare Delta driver trainer 970 passing southbound on the northbound lane of the promenade alongside road works

The new block paved 'shared access' promenade in Blackpool is currently a bit of a shambles, with road subsidence, missing blocks having to be replaced with new patches of tarmac and continuing maintenance work, entailing temporary traffic lights and contra-flows, to patch up the sub-standard road surface of what is supposed to be a major North-South trunk route between Lytham and Fleetwood. The previous tarmac dual-carriageway that ran between Central Pier and North Pier, which coped with the heavy traffic flows on this section, has been dug up and replaced by an inferior single carriageway at great expense on the whim of Blackpool Council. This has culminated in the present farcical situation whereby the promenade is now unusable between the Metropole Hotel and Central Pier during busy periods, due to the road capacity being halved and the traffic being continually held up because of uncontrolled pedestrian crossings at three locations, and now the Council want to add an additional crossing opposite the Tower to compound the situation! Blackpool's Optare Delta driver trainer 970 is seen passing the Tower, with the southbound lane of the promenade closed off due to defective block paving being replaced, necessitating northbound traffic to run over the non-roadway section of block paving.