Commuters could be asked to start work earlier and finish later under radical plans to beat Preston's congestion nightmare.
The idea is that companies closest to the city's gridlock hotspots would get staff to work on a "rota" system with staggered start times to ease traffic levels.

Frank McKenna, chairman of business group Downtown Preston in Business, urged city leaders to make the controversial move to alleviate problems at congestion "pinch points" such as Eastway, Broughton, and Riversway.

Workers at Preston Council and emergency insurance firm Homeserve, which employs more than 1,000 people at its call centre in Caxton Road, Fulwood, have already seen success with their own staggered start times.

Mr McKenna, whose company has its own office in the city centre, said: "My staff come in at 9.30am and go home at 6pm and they love it because they miss all the traffic.

"If there is an agreement across the board with all the major employers in the city to stagger start and finish times, it may help. Preston Council already staggers its start times and that may encourage the private sector to start doing it as well."

Preston Council leader Coun Ken Hudson said the Town Hall operates a flexi-time system, with staff working from 7.30am to 6.30pm but warned the idea would not work without support from the local business community.

He said the city's Vision Board was looking at including the ideas as part of its plans to redevelop the city.

Coun Hudson said: "I don't know whether the idea of staggering is going to do it. I suppose if everybody had flexi-time then all captains of industry could take that on board.

"We feel that it's a fundamental issue, the access and egress from the city, and we are working very closely with the Vision Board to try and address that situation."

Transport bosses from Lancashire County Council have already started to work on such a plan at the congested North Preston Employment Area in Fulwood by opening talks with major employers, including Homeserve, Asda and the DVLA.

Simon Hancox, managing director of Homeserve which is taking on an extra 500 workers at its Caxton Road centre, said that staggering start times with his workers' shift patterns was part of its "green travel plan."

He said: "There simply is not the space around us to build more parking spaces, so we have to be more inventive by staggering start times and giving our staff incentives to use public transport, and it is working."

Earlier this year, County Coun Michael Welsh, who has led the push to change companies' attitude at North Preston, said the council's transport officer was making "significant progress" on finding a solution with companies.

Nicholas Watson, joint chief executive of Preston Chamber of Trade, said: "The reality is there's a lot of government workers in the city who already work flexi-time.

"The other problem is, if you're in late you lose your car parking space."

LCC leader Coun Hazel Harding said she agrees "to some extent" but said some businesses have to work set times in order to communicate with other companies.

Aiden Turner-Bishop of local group Lancashire Better Transport, said: "It's a very good idea if you can get people to agree."