Recently I met with Chris Green MP to discuss the problems faced by Westhoughton residents on a daily basis, thanks to the use of the Bolton Road car park to store works and construction vehicles used by workers on the Aldi building site.
There is an overflow car park on Mill Street that is used for events and other similar circumstances where a larger than usual amount of traffic will be in the area. Why was this not opened to prevent traffic problems during the construction of the new supermarket?
An overflow could have been used to park works vehicles (most of which aren’t being used regularly as part of the construction process, they are just being used to get people to the site) or, if that wouldn’t work, to let people park their cars and go to work.
The fact that we are even having to ask these questions is a demonstration of how much the Labour-run Council has taken its eye off the ball. The car park is supposed to be left free for Howfeners to park their cars and get to work, go to the shops or generally just enjoy their town. It’s not supposed to be for storing Aldi construction vehicles.
Bolton’s Labour-run Council should have foreseen this problem. It’s very telling that they haven’t.