Only three 999 trips to busy junction

The Wigan Post submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act to find out how many times the police and ambulance service had been called to crashes at Marus Bridge junction.

There have been many reports of collisions there since a roundabout was removed and replaced with traffic light-controlled crossroads in a £1.4m redevelopment.

But the data shows the ambulance service had been there just once since 2014, to an incident in November 2016.

The police attended two “slight injury collisions”, one in 2015 and another in 2016. Their response said they did not record “damage only collisions”.

It suggests the many accidents at the junction - which involves Warrington Road, Poolstock Lane and Highfield Grange Avenue - have fortunately not been too serious.

But Winstanley resident Paul Shuttleworth, who has been campaigning for changes, disputed the statistics provided under the Freedom of Information request.

He said the emergency services were regularly at Marus Bridge junction and the data given was “all wrong”.

He said: “All the pictures that I have taken usually have an ambulance in the background. I’m surprised by that.”

Several changes have been made to the junction, with a new sign and road markings put in place earlier this year and changes made to the traffic lights.

Mr Shuttleworth said the junction had improved “significantly”.

But he said: “It’s a lot better, but I am still awaiting the next big accident, because they have not invoked the right-turn filter properly yet. It only works when there is a queue of traffic.”