PICTURE the scene – it’s 1970 and the great and good charged with transforming Skelmersdale from a tiny village to thriving New Town are sat around a large table.

Thick cigarette smoke clings to the air, slowly turning the oak panelled walls nicotine yellow. The clink of tea cups and saucers, not to mention the ensuing slurps, only serve to add to the din, which started some minutes earlier when the assortment of men in pinstripe suits and perfectly trimmed moustaches where asked: “So gentlemen, how do we improve Sandy Lane to ensure it continues being a thriving business centre for years to come.”

After around 10 minutes of furrowed brows and stroking of chins, one of them pipes up: “I know, let’s stick a staircase in the middle of it.”

Excited applause all round and the man slumps back in his chair with a wide grin on his face and chomps on his cigar. He knows his place in history is secured. Thoughts of maybe an OBE spring to mind, perhaps even Freeman of the Borough status.

Okay, so that might all not be exactly as it happened but it matters not because the decision (whoever made it) was to be the most calamitous and hated in the town’s long history.

Today, all we see is a large, bright yellow metal staircase plonked in the middle of Sandy Lane, something which effectively cuts the lane in two.

To drive from Gerald Bickerstaffe’s butchers to the health centre car park as the crow flies is impossible. Instead of a trip of a few hundred yards, it involves a mile journey taking in now fewer than four different roads – Witham Road, Railway Road, Westgate and High Street.

Down the years people have asked the same question: “Why?”

Back in November 1970, Lancs County County made a recommendation to close the lane to Skem and Holland Council.

The reason was, essentially, to get traffic using the newly-built ring road and, moreover, to keep pedestrians and traffic as far apart as possible. But that suggestion, however well intentioned, went down like a lead balloon even at the time.

Cllr Phil Bond, who died around seven years ago but was Labour leader at the time, told the Advertiser: “ It is not for Development Corporation to come onto the estates in Old Skem and alter the layout of roads.

"We keep harking back to 1962 when the former general manager of the Corporation, George Watson, said that there would be little interference with Old Skem and it was intended to leave it as a contrast between the old and the new. This promise is now being ignored.”

Indeed. And judging from our archives there were more closures planned which never came to fruition.

But others did, most notably the closure of the junction of Clayton Street/School Lane and Field Street/School Lane.

Some other roads, such as Daniels Lane, Wigan Road, Mill Lane, Fir Tree Close and Berry Street were turned into cul-de-sacs.

But whereas the furore surrounding all these has died down over the years, the Sandy Lane debate still rages to this day, particularly among the Old Skemmers who remember it as it was.

So I wondered whether the council would ever consider doing away with the staircase and reopen it to through traffic for the first time in almost 40 years.

But a spokeswoman for West Lancs said it is not as straightforward as it seems: “The staircase in question is actually a stepped ramp.

“This provides access for people with prams to the first floor which, aside from offices, also houses the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, hairdressers and a beauty salon.

“Without the ramp these people would be unable to gain access to the first floor and so its removal is not something the council would consider at the present time.”

So it looks like the people of Skem are stuck with it for the moment. But you know what they say, never say never...

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