A MAJOR scheme to improve a busy town centre junction will get under way this summer.

Among the improvements planned for the junction of Newport Street, Trinity Street and Thynne Street are traffic light upgrades, resurfacing of footpaths and carriageways, and drainage works.

Temporary traffic lights and road closures will be in place while the work is carried out.

According to Bolton Council’s website, the work is scheduled to start on April 1 and last until late September.

However, a council spokesman said the work was unlikely to begin until the summer.

Much of the work is likely to have to be carried out during the day, which will only add to the already lengthy delays motorists face at the junction.

According to Cllr David Chadwick, Bolton Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, drivers regularly stop in the middle of the road to pick up or drop off passengers ­— even though there are often parking spaces just a few yards further down the road’s lay-by.

He added: “What we are trying to do is make that junction safer because of some of the antics that go on in the vicinity.

“It is not a good situation. There is a lot of conflict between pedestrians and traffic.”

Commuters, buses and Hackney carriage drivers have faced major delays around the junction for years, and their problems worsened followed a revamp of the town centre’s road network in 2017.

After Great Moor Street became one-way, traffic was forced to travel down Newport Street and turn left to access Bradshawgate, Manchester Road, or the A666.

That resulted in more vehicles being forced through the Trinity Street bottleneck, where arguments regularly break out between drivers.

Drivers regularly stop in the middle of the road to pick up or drop off passengers ­— even though there are often parking spaces just a few yards further down the road’s lay-by.