£3.6m plan to fix the borough's roads

Wigan Council has published a list of the 93 roads and 48 footpaths it intends to improve in the coming year in its 2018-19 highways maintenance programme.

Main roads scheduled for repair this month include:

A580 East Lancashire Road, Leigh/Astley

A58 Market Street (Atherton Road to Bridge Street), Hindley

Leigh Road/B5237 Smiths Lane (Leigh Street to number 385), Hindley Green

Wigan Road (after Z bends to number 40), Shevington

Hamilton Street (Tyldesley Road to Morley Street), Atherton

Paul Tunstall, owner of Hindley Green HGV Training on Smiths Lane, welcomed the repair work carried out there at the weekend.

He said the road was in a “shocking” condition before and “desperately” needed to be resurfaced.

Mr Tunstall said: “I’m very glad it’s been done. It’s right outside the yard and we turn into that section and it was getting progressively worse and worse.”

Repair work has also started on Market Street in Hindley and is being done on Sundays.

Lisa Royds, lettings administrator at Kay Collins Lettings And Property Management Ltd, said: “It’s long overdue. The road was quite bad.”

Other roads listed for repairs during the year include Atherleigh Way in Leigh, Chorley Road in Standish, Bolton Road/Hall Lane in Aspull, Cale Lane in New Springs, and Swinley Road in Swinley.

The council is also continuing to fix on average 100 potholes each week.

As well as the plan for the upcoming year, it has published its indicative highways programme for 2019-2021 with the second wave of roads to be repaired, subject to how much funding can be secured.

Coun Carl Sweeney, the council’s cabinet member for environment, said: “We know how important the roads are to residents and we have a long-term plan to repair and maintain them.

“We are continuing to fix hundreds of potholes each month as we repair the roads after the harsh winter.

“Our highways network is the backbone of our economy and we are determined to keep it in a good condition for residents and businesses.”