THE fight to stop a new road -- which would destroy local woodland -- took an international twist when campaigner Sheila Hindle ended up as front page news in America.

Sheila, of Duxbury Keep The Peace group which is fighting the proposed Eaves Green link road, visited Duxbury in America to drum up some support, and found herself on the front page of their local newspaper, The Duxbury Clipper, in Massachusetts.

She said: "I have wanted to visit Duxbury for 50 years, ever since I met soldiers from there in the war.

"As I planning my holiday I was thinking about Duxbury, and thought their local paper might be interested in what was happening here - I didn't realise I would end up as front page news!"

Sheila said she is opposed to the road because it would destroy the only surviving memory of Myles Standish, who travelled to America aboard the Mayflower during the 1600s and named the town after his ancestral home, Duxbury Hall, which was knocked down in the 1950s.

Fellow campaigners have other concerns. Geoffrey Goodpseed, also of Duxbury Keep The Peace, said they have done extensive research about the need for the road, including a traffic census, an assessment on the flora and fauna of the woodland and an analysis of various safety aspects.

Planners say the aim of the road is to reduce congestion around Weldbank and Carr Lane, but the campaigners say the results of three separate rush-hour traffic counts - in June, July and August - show the area does not get busy enough to warrant a link road.

Chorley Borough Council's planning policy manager Julian Jackson, said that as well as relieving traffic in the Eaves Green area, the road would also provide better access to a housing development of 600-700 houses which is planned for just south of Plock Wood.