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Caught in a dust storm
DUST created by the construction of Wigan's new shopping complex is bringing tears to local residents' eyes.
Now the Scholes Multi Storey Tenants and Residents' Association is demanding developers Modus take action to dampen down the problem at the multi-million Grand Arcade project now starting to emerge from the rubble in Millgate.
They want contractors to use water geysers to squirt water onto the dirt, stopping it from blowing around.
SMS secretary Syd Hall is concerned that the dust may contain particles of asbestos disturbed with the demolition of the Station Road and the Millgate multi storey car parks, along with the famous old Ritz cinema.
Mr Hall says: "You have to be Lawrence of Arabia to survive around here at the moment
"For the last few months people have been subjected to some really atrocious dust storms from the work on this new shopping centre.
"Everyone knows that the work has to be carried out, but surely, in this day and age, some sort of sprinkler system should have been installed to keep the dust to a minimum.
"We as SMS have had loads of complaints on behalf of the tenants and residents of the high rise flats whom all live in the immediate vicinity adjacent and our committee have complained several times to the site engineers, but to no avail."
Shepherd Construction site spokesman Mark Richardson insisted that the firm was taking precautions to reduce dust nuisance – but "freak circumstances" had caused unusually heavy problems.
He explained: "This was a bit of an odd occasion when dry weather coincided with us having to cut a new hauling road on a day with a particularly nasty, gusty wind that was blowing right across Riverway and straight at the flats.
"Coupled to that was the fact that we were expecting some rain to reduce the dust but it never came.
"We were caught out a little bit but I'm confident that this won't happen regularly and we are certainly on top of the problem now.
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Weather for Wigan
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -6 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 3 mph
Wind direction: South
