An up and coming 3 months road closure of Bolton Road whilst the bridge gets replaced has caused uproar for Atherton residents.
The main link road shall be shut from the 12th September for up to 12 weeks whilst the “necessary replacement” of the bridge is dealt with. Since this was revealed by Wigan Council some people have been banking on the use of Marlborough Road as a cut through by going through the estate in order to avoid the obstruction. This is however no longer possible since Wigan Council failing to tell us originally that Marlborough Road shall also be closed during the 12 week time frame and this has been confirmed since by a yellow sign being erected at the entrance either side of the road.
Phil Rawnsley told Atherton Online:
“Plans to close Bolton Road (until December) include a 3-metre metal gate across Marlborough road to stop people cutting through the estate! Unfortunately for the residents...it means a 7 mile detour!!”
Due to the closure residents of the estate shall also be unable to gain full access to the road and therefore have a long 12 weeks of misery ahead. Estate residents and anybody else who shall be affected by the road closure are going to be diverted through Westhoughton adding an extra 7 miles to the average journey to and from their destination. Despite a petition being signed by hundreds of residents, Wigan Council have once again chosen to ignore the local community and gone ahead anyway once again showing that they could not give a FOUR X about any of their sub towns outside that of their own.
Luckily I’m not a driver so I won’t have to put up with the sheer frustration of following irritating diversion signs, however I am a passenger and it shall affect my travelling to quite a large extent & not being able to get into Lancashire with such great ease! Wigan Council could have prevented what it is going to be utter chaos if they wanted to, but with like everything else they simply are not interested. This shall just have to be something we all struggle with because I really cannot envisage Wigan MBC removing the erected metal gate until the job is well and truly over.
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