A ROAD that collapsed during the Boxing Day floods is not expected to reopen fully until February.

A large section of Forest Road in Smithills fell away during the December deluge as water rushed down from Moss Bank Park.

The road has remained closed since that point with an initial temporary closure notice running until this month.

Bolton Council has now extended that notice until next February — more than a year after the incident, with plans being put in place to start the complex £600,000 repair scheme.

The authority has secured the necessary approvals for the job, which has now been put out to tender for prospective contractors to bid on.

It is hoped that work will start in August on repairing the road, but the council is not happy that its bid to the Government for £1.5 million for flood repair work resulted in an award for half that amount.

Bolton Council’s transport boss, Cllr David Chadwick, explained: “The Government had the opportunity to provide that funding for flood-hit areas across the borough, including Forest Road and Riverside Drive in Prestolee.

“By offering us just half it means the council must either not carry out the full work or dip into our reserves — this is why we have reserves.”

He added: “I understand this work will inconvenience people and it won’t be easy, but I hope they will understand that you can’t rush a job like this, we wouldn’t want the road falling away again in 10 or 15 years.”

The council explained that the job is particularly complicated because of design and legal issues around a culvert diversion in Forest Road.

A spokesman said: “This has taken some while to get the necessary approvals for the work in place.

“Now these issues have been resolved the project is with contractors to competitively bid for the work.

“We are hopeful of starting work before Autumn, but this will be subject to confirmation with the contractors, who have also been asked to provide a programme indicating their earliest possible start date.

He added: “It’s too early to say at this stage how long the work will take until we have detailed discussions with the contractors and of course, we will update residents before work starts.”

One resident living in the affected area of Forest Road, who did not wish to be named, said: "It has been difficult after what happened, we have to drag our bins up the road and one end is blocked, but we just have to get on with it.

"We would have liked them to get the work started sooner but now we just want to see it happen."