A CONTROVERSIAL proposal to lower the speed limit on a section of Crompton Way in Bolton has been put on hold.

The current 40mph limit was due to be slashed to 30 as part of work which also includes a section of the busy road being reduced from two lanes to one.

The lane reduction is expected to be all-but-finished by the end of the week, despite objections from road users.

However, the plan to cut the speed limit is now up in the air after highways chiefs told councillors they had always intended to first look at the effect of the other changes on driver speed.

Now speed readings on the half-mile stretch between Tonge Moor Road and Thicketford Road will be taken before officers report back on the impact in six months' time.

A report presented to Bolton Council's planning and highways committee cites police concerns as one reason for the delay.

It said: "The representative of the Chief Constable has in the past expressed concern about the introduction of lower speed limits, that appear inappropriate to road users, and has referred to the difficulty in enforcing such limits."

The hesitation in introducing a 30mph speed limit has met with a mixed response from councillors.

Cllr Elaine Sherrington, of Tonge with the Haulgh ward member, said: "I will be a lot happier when the road is down to 30mph because it will mean there will be less chance of people being killed."

Cllr Sherrington believed that the reduced speed limit would allow cars to park in Crompton Way at night without showing a parking light as they must on 40mph roads.

Cllr John Walsh, the Highways spokesman for the Conservatives who opposed the scheme, said he was not convinced a reduced speed limit was a good idea, arguing that most accidents were not speed related.

Hugh German, of the Bolton Institute of Advanced Motorists agreed.

He said: "With all the other things being done to make the road safer it seemed to me there was no need to slow traffic down any more."

In addition to the lane reduction, pedestrian refuges and dropped kerbs have been created as part of the £55,000 scheme.

The planning and highways committee has also approved the advertisement of proposed new waiting restrictions at junctions and in side roads along the stretch of Crompton Way affected.

Double yellow lines would be painted along 10 metres of Cartmel Crescent, Foutains Avenue, Firwood Grove, Lindisfarne Place, Tintern Avenue, Crowland Road, Minster Road, Firwood Lane and St Bees Road, from their junction with Crompton Way.