Officials are “managing the decline” of pavements on Bolton’s roads despite concerns over safety with streetlights about to be dimmed, town hall has heard.

This comes after revelations that the road repair backlog for the borough currently stands at around £92M.

But aside from highways, concerns have also been raised about the state of pavements, especially with streetlights set to be dimmed across Bolton.

Cllr Andy Morgan, of Heaton, Lostock and Chew Moor, said: “Clearly dimming street lighting reduces visibility making it harder for pedestrians to see obstacles such as raised pavements, thus increasing the risk of accidents.”

He added: “A number of elderly residents have contacted me concerned about the proposed street lighting dimming when so many of our pavements are uneven.”

The Bolton News: Questions were raised at Bolton Town HallQuestions were raised at Bolton Town Hall (Image: Newsquest)

The decision to dim 37,000 of the borough’s 40,000 streetlights was taken as part of a programme of cuts to Bolton Council’s budget.

This slashed around £8.6M worth of funding for council services, with dimming lights expected to save around £450,000 a year.

But addressing a full meeting of the council, Cllr Morgan said that though this needed to be balanced against public safety needs.

He asked what improvements could be made pavements, particularly on major “arterial” roads like Chorley New Road, to counterbalance this.

But cabinet member for transport, housing and highways Cllr Hamid Khurram said that the council was now receiving far less funding from the government than previously.

He said that spending on pavements was made more difficult by the huge total cost of the highways repair backlog.

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Cllr Khurram said: “Taking into account the increases in prices of materials and fuel we have seen a significant reduction in our funding and the challenge of our highways colleagues is to safely manage that decline.”

He added: “Our last highway asset management strategy referenced our maintenance backlog at £92M and nationally this is £14billion so I am very aware of the challenges we are facing.”

But Cllr Khurram said that councillors still had the option of using ward funding for highways improvements.

He said: “So if there are any specific locations you wish to be considered for improvement, I will happily share them with highways officers for assessment.”