A BUSY area of Barrow is becoming an “accident waiting to happen” and needs a rethink, a meeting has been told.

Traffic is snarling up on Hindpool Road around the retail parks and roundabouts – frustrating motorists, said councillor Anne Burns.

She told a meeting of Barrow’s Local Committee that the hold-ups would only get worse at Christmas with more shoppers around.

Shoppers coming off the Hindpool Retail Park where the town’s Next store is frequently struggled to be able to turn right onto Hindpool Road to head for Barrow Island or Walney, she said.

And with a major new Aldi store going up on nearby Hollywood Park, more traffic would be trying to get through the roundabout on North Road or and the exit for the A590 up Ironworks Road, she said.

At the meeting in Barrow on Friday, Cllr Burns said: “I think some major traffic management work needs to be done down there.

“If you’re stuck by Next trying to turn right onto that road, it blocks everything up. It certainly needs looking at because it’s becoming a big accident waiting to happen. Motorists are getting frustrated and I think it needs a major scheme.”

Cllr Frank Cassidy (Lab, Walney South) told the meeting that motorists leaving the Next site were better off turning left and using the John Whinnerah roundabout to double back, rather than trying to turn right.

County council highways network manager, Kieron Tetchner, said banning right turns off the Hindpool Retail Park might work, although motorists could ignore them.

The call for further investigation is now going to go on the agenda of the council’s highways advisory sub-group for the Barrow area.