A KEY road is to be transformed as part of the vision for a major regeneration project. 

Plans have been approved to improve the road network around the proposed Marina Village development in Barrow. 

The work will involve widening the existing carriageway in Salthouse Road, between Rawlinson Street and Ruskin Terrace, to create a new right-turning lane on to the site.  

The new access road will lead off from Salthouse Road to open up the adjacent brownfield land for future investment and re-development. 

Firm plans for the Marina Village housing project and its funding are yet to be devised. 

But the highway changes have been approved to boost the construction phase, and provide one of the permanent entrances for when development is complete. 

Cumbria County Council's development control and regulation committee approved the plans when it met in Kendal on Wednesday. 

The report  that  went before the committee said: "The proposed location and scheme design are considered suitable and acceptable and it is judged that the development will not have any adverse impacts on local amenity, subject to conditions. 

"The proposed development would make a valuable small step in improving the visual and physical linkages between the proposed regeneration area and the town."

Graham Haywood, director of the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “The Barrow waterfront is a flagship site within our strategic economic plan, but we can only unlock its full potential by investing in appropriate infrastructure development."

Barrow Borough Council is the landowner of the Marina Village site and will be responsible for developing it as part of the Barrow Port Area Action Plan.

With funding from the old North West Development Agency and its own funds, Barrow council acquired the land around the proposed junction and has also set aside land required for the Marina Village to allow for future housing development.

In another development, Barrow council has given notification that it intends to demolish Daveys Yard, part of the proposed Marina Village site, to free it up for regeneration. 

It was originally the Furness Railway Company engineering works, but more recently a yard from where a skip hire company worked.