A £2million project to ease traffic jams and cut accidents at a busy roundabout is set to start after a six-month delay.

Contractors will get to work on Whitebirk roundabout, at the border of Blackburn and Hyndburn, in August.

The roundabout at junction six of the M65 sees long queues up the slip road at peak times and is officially East Lancashire's worst in terms of accidents.

Under the improvement scheme, traffic lights will be installed at every junction leading to the roundabout, as well as an extra lane on both the roundabout and the slip roads leading from the motorway.

There will also be a bus lane added from the Red Lion pub, and the ends of slip roads will be widened.

Drivers have been warned that there will be delays during the 13-week project, but that the roundabout will be kept open at peak times.

The roadworks were originally set to begin in March, but complications arose because while Lancashire County Council is in charge of the roundabout, the motorway slip roads are administered by the government's Highways Agency, and Blackburn with Darwen Council is in control of the roads leading to Blackburn.

But now an agreement has been reached for the county council to take control of the entire scheme.

Legal documents had to be drawn up to allow the county council to carry out the work and get cash from its two partners.

County councillor Tony Martin, the cabinet member for sustainable development, said: "There has to be something done about this road because the congestion is so bad that people are queueing actually on to the motorway sometimes to get on the roundabout. It's incredibly dangerous.

"There are accidents all the time there - people shunt into the back of one another or they get T-boned into the roundabout itself.

"The congestion there also means more traffic at junction five, at Shadsworth, where there are often cars queuing on to the hard shoulder and the motorway carriageway.

"Hopefully this will get things sorted out."