Concerns over potentially dangerous Wigan ‘sink hole’

A Wigan resident has expressed frustration over the time it took for the town hall to heed concerns about a potentially dangerous “sink hole” - only filled after the Wigan Post intervened.
The sink hole in a verge on Scot Lane, WiganThe sink hole in a verge on Scot Lane, Wigan
The sink hole in a verge on Scot Lane, Wigan

Denise Griffin, from Beech Hill, first warned the council about a large void in a grass verge in Scot Lane in March, but said it had not been filled despite several complaints by email and phone.

“There was a deep hole in the verge, about two feet deep. It looks like a mini-sink hole. You would fall right in if you stepped in it,” Mrs Griffin said.

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“I first reported it in March. A couple of weeks later, there was a hazard sign put around the hole, but that’s now been taken down.

“The hole was actually getting bigger. Someone could easily have been injured and nothing was being done.

She added: “Kids that go to the local school walked past it every day. You know what kids are like: pushing each other, having a laugh and a joke.

“If a child was to have fallen in that, they would have seriously hurt themselves.”

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She went on:“The council recently went and cut the grass on the verge where the hole is, there was no way they could not have noticed the hole.”

To add to Mrs Griffin’s frustration, she claimed anytime she tried to call the town hall to report the issue, she was left waiting in an automated queue for as long as half an hour, wasting both her time and money.

But following an investigation by the Wigan Post, a council spokesman revealed the highways team was making repairs to the sinkhole and investigating its cause.

Mrs Griffin reacted to the news with both relief and frustration in equal measure, expressing annoyance that it took press involvement for the issue to finally be resolved.

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She said: “It’s so frustrating that it has taken this for them to actually do anything.

“I wouldn’t mind, but I have sent emails to complain that nothing has been done, and not got a response.

“This is what I pay my council tax for. I have been making them aware of it. I didn’t just do it once, I did it twice, but it was only when I got the press involved that anything happened.”

Issues can be reported to the council online at wigan.gov.uk/report-it or by using the Report It mobile app.

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