THEY are in a bad state now — but the condition of Bolton’s roads was being called into question 25 years ago, it has emerged.

A trip back in time has revealed the late David Young, MP for Bolton South East at the time, labelled the town’s highways as a “danger to life and limb” during a debate in Parliament in 1984.

Mr Young said many of Bolton’s roads were more typical of dirt tracks in Africa and revealed he had written to highways chiefs at Bolton Council demanding immediate action be taken.

The Greenock-born politician, who died in 2003, also urged the council to take a stronger approach when supervising roadworks carried out by utilities companies — a view echoed by current MP Dr Brian Iddon.

Mr Young said: “Bolton is faced with a serious problem. We seem to have more holes than roads in some places.

“The council is not directly responsible for digging up roads but it is responsible for supervising the process, seeing that diversions and dangers are adequately signposted and resurfacing work is properly carried out.

“At the moment this is not happening and it is posing a risk to life and limb.”

He went on to say he had almost fallen foul of one particularly bad road and added: “The end result of that incident could have been a by-election.”

The Bolton News revealed last week that the borough’s infrastructure — highways, pavements, bridges, street lights and cycle paths — needs a £76 million investment.

It will take £13.6 million to bring the main roads alone up to a decent standard.

In light of the revelations, we have launched a campaign which calls on the Government to find the lesser amount of money so Bolton can get moving again.

Today, Bolton Council holds quarterly meetings to discuss planned or proposed works, and monitors major schemes on a daily basis to ensure the standard of re-surfacing is adequate.

Dr Iddon, who replaced Mr Young in 1997, claims a lot of the current road problems could stem from sub-standard patching work by utility companies.

He said: “I have driven down roads where I am bouncing all over the place in craters created by patched-up bits of road sinking.

“I think the council’s officers should be doing more to enforce the standards they have set.”

A United Utilities spokesman said: “When planning projects, we work closely with the local authority and other stakeholders, and do everything we can to minimise inconvenience to road users, businesses and local residents. We keep local communities well informed and will often carry out consultation work in advance, to determine the least disruptive way of tackling a project.”

andrew.greaves@theboltonnews.co.uk