A team of councillors and residents have taken it upon themselves to improve the surface of roads in their local area.
Led by Cllr Bernadette Eckersley-Fallon, councillor for Westhoughton and Chew Moor, and Westhoughton town councillor, Cllr Carol Kirkman, the seven strong group set about filling in potholes on a well-worn road near Hart Common.
Cllr Eckersley-Fallon says that because the road was unadopted, it is not the Council’s responsibility, but due to it presenting significant safety hazards, someone had to do something.
She added: “It’s a main access road down to Hart Common Park where a lot of children go on the park and there are playing fields there as well.
“It’s been like that for quite a long time. Residents have approached us.
“I asked if I could have some plainings which is as a result of the A6 resurfacing – basically it’s the waste off the resurfacing which would ultimately go into landfill.”
The groups motivation was simply to “help the community”, which Cllr Eckersley-Fallon says is her primary focus.
“Being a councillor to me is community work, ultimately,” she added. “I’m there to do other stuff too but being a part of the community is what I’m about.”
The groups efforts have not gone unnoticed by residents, who have congratulated the councillors and their crew for their hard work – which was by no means easy.
“I could hardly walk – it was very hard work,” said Cllr Eckersley-Fallon
“You’re shovelling, lifting and shifting, and actually stamping on it into the holes.
“At the end of it is a good result – it looks a lot better than when we started and residents can now drive on the road without tearing the spoiler off their car at the front.”
The group also started work on the roads around The Hub at Westhoughton, which will hopefully be culminated next week.
Cllr Eckersley-Fallon added: “The Hub is actually on the resurfacing programme but I can’t get a date for that to be done because it goes into a huge, wide programme for the whole of Bolton, so we started to do that road as well on Sunday because they have a food bank there and the road was really bad.
“I’ve got a local businessman on Saturday coming back over to The Hub who is going to move some more plainings for me and we’re going to finish the road and around the food bank cabins as well so people don’t have trip hazards.”
Residents are told to “feel free” to come and collect some plainings over the weekend that they can use for their own improvements.
If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at lewis.finney@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @lewisfinney18
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