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The road
to nowhere
The signs on Cale Lane, New Springs, Wigan
IT’S annoying enough when you have to take a detour for roadworks - but perhaps it is more irksome when signs tell you to avoid somewhere that doesn’t exist!
This has been the prospect facing Sunday drivers in New Springs, Wigan, over the last three weeks after workmen mis-wrote (after possibly mis-hearing) details of a road closure from the local authority.
The unnamed contractors, who have been carrying out resurfacing work, were instructed to put up a sign informing motorists that Wigan Road would be closed to traffic between its junctions with Cale Lane and Kirkless Street.
Perhaps it was a bad phone line down which the information was passed; perhaps the person who put the sign together isn’t familiar with the area and is a little hard of hearing.
Whatever the problem, the upshot was that drivers were told that the road between somewhere called Kay Lane and Kikless Street was to be.
Whether this really caused any problems to drivers passing through is a moot point, but it certainly caused some amusement locally.
Laura Baker from Whelley said: “You would think that when the workmen can see the signs for the two streets mentioned that they would spot they had got it wrong.
“There’s no such place as Kay Lane anywhere in Wigan and while I’ve heard quite a few strangers call Kirkless Kirklees, this mis-spelling is a new one on me. Maybe the names were read over the phone and someone mis-heard.”
Wigan Council’s Head of Highways, Mark Tilley, said: “We have instructed a firm of contractors to re-surface the road at this location. As part of this we gave specific instructions regarding what the road signs needed to say. The wording we sent over to the contractor says Cale Lane and Kirkless Street.
“We sincerely apologise to members of the public who may have been inconvenienced as a result. We will be raising this issue with the contractor.”
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Weather for Wigan
Monday 20 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 7 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North west
