MOTORISTS have been left puzzled as planned work at a major road junction has still not started -- three months after it was supposed to begin.

Bolton Council's road signs at the Dunscar War Memorial promised it would take just eight weeks to install traffic lights and build a slip road between Darwen Road and Blackburn Road.

But the long-promised work on the junction has failed to materialise despite assurances it would begin in mid-March.

It has emerged that a legal wrangle between Bolton Council and the private developers who promised to fund the scheme has delayed the start of the work.

Residents had been left scratching their heads after first seeing road cones appear -- but no workmen. The cones and road works signs have now been removed.

Eagle-eyed Egerton resident Jean Robinson spotted one convoy of lorries arrive, only to watch them leave minutes later.

She said: "They seem to have chopped down a tree. Some of the paving stones have been lifted and replaced by tarmacadam. But other than that -- nothing. It is a dangerous junction and it needs something doing."

The junction is being improved by the developers of Eagley Mills -- specialist builder PJ Livesey Rural and Bryant Homes.

The developers agreed to improve the junction as a planning condition of building on the site of the mills at the bottom of Hough Lane.

They also agreed to close Hough Lane to through traffic to stop it being used as a rat run out of Bromley Cross. However, the final details had not been agreed and the council was forced into negotiations with the developers over the cost and who was to be in charge of the scheme.

Bolton Council's highways director Dave Sutton said the green light to begin work has now been given but revealed it is unlikely to begin until later this month and will take between two and three months to complete.

The new traffic lights will be in place for a six-months trial period before Hough Lane is closed.