Nightmare stretch of road was plagued with 100 days of temporary lights in 2023

A busy stretch of road was plagued with temporary traffic lights for 100 days in 2023 – leaving many residents sitting in snaking queues on a regular basis.

A freedom of Information request (FOI) submitted to Rochdale Council revealed that the A58, between Albert Royds Street roundabout and the junction with Hollingworth Road, had temporary traffic lights in place for almost a third of the time last year (100 out of 365 days). This section of road is the main route used by motorists travelling between Rochdale and Littleborough.

According to Councillor Tom Besford, this regularly brings Littleborough to a standstill.

The Littleborough Lakeside representative believes companies such as IX Wireless and United Utilities need to be hit with heavier fines for breaching their permit times to incentivise speedier work. He claimed that the council tries to put restrictions on each contract such as removing lights out of hours or staffing the lights at peak times, but utility companies can simply ignore this by paying a fine capped at £120.

Councillor Besford wants to see council powers increased by the government so they can fine companies thousands for breaching these permits, and has started a petition calling on Whitehall to address this.

He said: “This road is the primary thoroughfare between Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. When there are temporary lights along this stretch of road, chaos and gridlock inevitably accompany them.

“These private utility companies have prioritised shareholder profit over keeping the infrastructure in good nick. When the ageing pipework fails, they have a legal right to dig up our roads.

“The council tries to put restrictions on each contract like clearing them out of hours or staffing the lights at peak times, but utility companies can simply ignore the council by paying a meagre £120 fine.

“In many cases it’s cheaper to pay the fine on day one of a contract than employ additional staff to operate the lights, causing absolute chaos in Littleborough.”

He added that he knows of one business in the area planning to move on due to the impact these road delays are having on deliveries and reliability.

According to the FOI response, the biggest culprits for inputting temporary traffic lights were IX Wireless (56 days) and United Utilities (33 days). It added that during 2023 there were a total of 31 permits requiring temporary traffic signals, nine of which were deemed to be emergency works.

However, the FOI response from Rochdale Council added: “There is a caveat with this figure, the system only allows for the highest/worst case traffic management type.

“This means that a permit may be in place for a number of days for the works but temporary signals are only required for part of that period e.g. IX Wireless typically only require their temporary signals for one – two hours.

“Therefore the true number of days when temporary signals were used will be less than 100 days but there is currently no way to find this information. Also some of these works may have taken place overnight.”

A spokesperson for IX Wireless said: “We are delivering super-fast broadband across the region. This vital investment will create a more resilient and affordable broadband network for local communities and residents.

“We know no-one likes roadworks and we have worked closely with the local authorities to make sure everyone knows what is happening. Temporary traffic lights are used when necessary.

“Our on-site team works hard to keep disruption to a minimum and we thank people for their patience.”

A United Utilities spokesperson, said: “Across the North West we have enough water pipes and sewers to wrap three times around the world if they were laid end to end. Most of this infrastructure is under highways and we work around the clock repairing leaks, fixing blockages and laying new pipework to keep taps flowing and toilets flushing for our customers.

“Across the region we raise around 94,000 permits each year and since the introduction of performance based inspections on the April 1, 2023, our average performance is 92.3 per cent compliance.

“Over the period in question on the A58 we requested 10 permits. Two of these were for emergency works, the other eight were linked to maintenance activities, and all work was carried out in line with the permits.”

George Lythgoe, Local Democracy Reporter