The Traffic Signals installed to prevent vehicles from stopping

The Village of Lane Head, Lowton sits within Wigan Council area but is yards from the Warrington Border. A pinch point in the local road network, Lane Head leads many motorists to Warrington, Cheshire and beyond using the M6 & M62. Around 12,000 vehicles pass through Lane Head daily, 21% of them HGVs (Wigan Council figures). Queues are common on Newton Road, Kenyon Lane and Winwick Lane. ​ After years of campaigning, residents succeeded in having Winwick Lane de-primed in 2017, allowing a southbound 7.5t weight limit to be introduced in 2023. Warrington Council, however, has refused to apply the same limit northbound, citing enforcement issues despite having restrictions elsewhere in the borough. Air quality in the village has been monitored to being over legal levels. The DEFRA legal limit is set at 40.0ug/m3 The figure for 2022 was 45.3ug/m3 2023 still exceeded the legal maximum at 42.4ug/m3 To combat this, Wigan council installed a set of SCOOT (Split Cycle Optimiser Offset Technique) traffic signals on the Northbound side. These have been installed 160m south of Winwick Lane/Newton Road junction. This will prevent harmful emissions from waiting vehicles being directly in front of properties The Signals are recently installed and still need some phasing adjustments as at various times of the day vehicles are fully trapped between the new and original lights at Lane Head because of standing traffic on Newton Road. Thus, there may be a need to re-phase the traffic lights at Lane head in order to keep the traffic light interspace clear.