‘Collapsing’ newly laid footpaths have led to accusations a council has ‘wasted £1m’ on a town centre revamp. Last year, much of Westhoughton town centre was repaved, with Market Street, King Street and other streets in the area undergoing layout changes. Part of the works also included extending pavements over road junctions off Market Street.
Now Cllr David Wilkinson, who represents Westhoughton South has blasted parts of the scheme, which has led to ‘ unsightly’ temporary repairs after paving stones over a road junction cracked and crumbled, making the footway ‘unsafe’. Cllr Wilkinson s aid he had complained to the authority about the ‘collapsing continuous footpath at the entrance to Queen Street’. He said: “The foundation of the footpath was insufficient to hold the paving stones and with water getting in made the paving became loose and several broke.
“We raised this with Bolton highways and we were told that the council would contact the original contractor to deal with but it could take several weeks. We said that was no good due the unsafe nature of the footpath. “They then said they would remove the broken stone and fill with tarmac until the contractor came back.
The temporary work has still left it in unsafe condition and we raised this with the head of highways. “The original contractor is to carry out a patch repair to make it safe until they come back to repair the foundation and rebuild the footpath.” READ MORE: Westhoughton: Mar.