'We've been looking at houses to move to get away from this, it's that bad... there's always a road closed somewhere in the town.'
Drilling, roadworks, burst pipes and exasperated motorists. A typical sight for residents of one Blackburn area, some might say.
"I'll have to tell my colleague that I'll be even later for work," Charlotte told LancsLive. "People get really annoyed and stuff but it just is what it is." Gordon says that much of the diversion takes drivers along Roman Road and near Pot House Lane in Darwen, but with added congestion, a lot of lorry drivers are getting stuck as they try and turn the corners. It's been a nuisance for car drivers, he says, as a usual commute into Blackburn or Darwen has added extra time on which worsens with rush hour traffic.
Claire said she remembers when a similar incident occurred on the road a few years ago, but is concerned as to why it's happened again. Only last August, residents were left without water during a heatwave, after a water pipe burst in Old Farmside, Darwen, only a few miles away from Pickering Fold. Sheila says that the immediate area is "chaos" and as a result, the couple have been looking at houses elsewhere to move away.
Phil Lawson says the road closure and burst pipe is "yet another display of chaos for the roads around the area." He said most residents and himself are unsure why the problem hasn't been fixed, particularly as it's not the first time. In terms of the burst water pipe, Emily says the road is always being dug up and around six weeks ago, a large amount of water had collected on the junction, creating a "landslide" into the road. She added: "That was a real pain, you couldn't walk there.