Owner of Wigan quarry speaks about plan to drain site

Two people, Marsh Green schoolboy Miracle Godson and 17-year-old Craig Croston from Platt Bridge, have died at the quarry and people have been injured at the site as well.

Fences have been placed around the site but people are still able to break through and gain access.

Mr O’Dowd says his long-term ambition for the site is to get it filled in with material such as soil, concrete and other building materials and then seek permission to build houses at the quarry.

However, he said that will be a long process and he wants to get the draining done in order to take away the attraction for people looking to take an outdoor dip.

He said: “From a health and safety point of view you do a risk assessment. The first option, always, is to remove the risk. We can remove the risk here. And even if you can’t get rid of the risk then you mitigate it.

“We’ve put up fences all the way round but they just keep tearing them down.

“The most important thing to me right now is to drain it. Then we will be seeking permission to fill it in. Then we will be seeking planning permission to develop it. We’re a long, long way off that.

“We’ve had loads of people here during lockdown. I just can’t understand it.”

The Environment Agency recently said when asked by the Wigan Observer that it was awaiting further information from Maybrook before it could move forward considering the application to drain the quarry.

It is understood the missing document is an ecology survey,

Mr O'Dowd said it would take between 12 and 14 weeks to drain the quarry if he gets the go-ahead.

One resident who has spoken out in support of removing the water is Natalie Prescott, from Orrell, who knows from painful experience what can happen at the quarry.

Natalie was taken to hospital by air ambulance with major ankle and knee injuries after she plunged 40ft down a cliff there in a tombstoning incident.

She later set up a petition which collected more than 4,000 signatures but was ultimately to no avail.

The 31-year-old said: “It does need closing. No matter how many people get hurt the authorities aren’t listening.

“They should get it drained and filled in.

“If the water is there people know it and they will jump in.

“They think it won’t happen to them and they won’t get hurt, but it does happen.”

A major police operation resulted in hundreds of people being turned away from the quarry over one weekend during lockdown.

Visitors have descended on the area from parts of Merseyside.

If Mr O’Dowd’s scheme does get to the stage of a planning application for housing it will not be the first time the site has been considered for building work.

Outline approval was given back in 2013 for a mixed-use development involving houses as well as commercial and leisure facilities.