PEOPLE in a once-quiet Kearsley street are pleading for help to stop the unmade street being used as a rat run. Residents of 30 flats in Tong Street say the dirt surface has been turned into a potholed quagmire because many drivers use it as a short cut to by-pass the junction of Slackey Brow and the A666 main road through Kearsley. John Wilson, one of the fed-up residents, said the problems began when a large housing estate was built recently on land where a power station once stood at the bottom of Slackey Brow.

He said: "Instead of waiting to get out onto the main road at the top of the brow, many drivers coming up Slackey Brow now take a short cut along Tong Street.

Potholed

"The dirt road just can't take that volume of traffic and it's a potholed mess. We can't even clean cars because a few minutes later they are spattered with mud."

"We want the council to block off the street at the bottom end so that it can't be used by through traffic."

Bolton Council say they cannot block off the street, but have promised residents that the next time road works are being carried out in the area, they will provide hardcore to fill in the potholes.

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