FRUSTRATED residents were unable to leave for work or other commitments this morning after the gate to their secure car park jammed, locking them in.

The gate, at Spencer’s Wood, in Bromley Cross, is usually opened and closed by the use of a fob owned by each resident. A code can also be entered if this fails.

But this morning the gate did not respond to any attempt to open it as people attempted to set off for the day.

People living in the apartments called property management firm Premier Estates,  who said they would send someone out to the fix the gate 'as soon as possible', but were unable to confirm an exact time.

A resident who made a further check was told someone should be despatched by 10am.

Resident Phil Edwards, 54, said: “I should’ve been in Chorley now, people have been waiting since about 7.30am. This is a new system that’s been installed about four months ago. The old one that failed had a manual override that allowed you to push the gate.

“The new system has just got a key but nobody knows where it is.”

Mr Edwards, who installs CCTV and security systems said he would not be able to make a meeting with a customer he had arranged in Chorley because of the problem.

“It’s just an inconvenience,” he added.

Another resident, Owen Wright, had booked the day off work to have his car fixed.

He said: “I have got my car booked in to be fixed at a garage today, because the exhaust has dropped down and needs to be rewelded , but now this has happened I can’t get there. I

“I’ve had the day off to get it fixed, it’s a real pain.”

Mr Wright  said the gate becoming jammed was a recurring problem for residents.

He added: “It’s happened a few times since I moved here , it’s always been a problem, every six months or so it tends to happen, and in winter it freezes, which is a pain.”

The 31-year-old, who works at Rimmers Music, in Bolton, said he had lived at Spencers Wood for nearly three years and the gate had broken down ‘six or seven times’.

“Sometimes you are lucky and it happens when you don’t have anything to do, but the chances are it happens when you have something like your car booked in or something needs doing; it happens at the worst times.”

An engineer arrived to fix the gate at about 10am.