BOLTON town centre is set for a long, hot, smelly summer...while sewer repairs are being carried out. Council chiefs have warned that there could be a prevailing pong during the 15-week programme of work. And motorists' tempers are also set to reach boiling point when town centre roads are closed.

The programme will be staggered for a week or so at a time, across the town centre.

Among the streets which will be affected are Great Moor Street, Mawdsley Street, Hotel Street, Mealhouse Lane, Victoria Square, Howell Croft North, Blackhorse Street and Turton Street.

For part of the programme, while work is being carried out on Hotel Street and Market Street, traffic stopping to load up shops in the area will be allowed on to the pedestrianised Victoria Square in the early morning and late afternoon.

The work is being carried out to prevent the ageing sewers crumbling and to prevent the more urgent work having to be carried out in future.

Bolton Council is supervising the project on behalf of United Utilities who are financing it.

It is being carried out using a "lining technique", a method much quicker than traditional ways of mending sewers.

It will mean putting an inflatable "sock" like device into the sewer.

It puts a resin-like lining in the sewer and it is then hardened by filling it with heated water for 18 hours. While this is being done, the sewer is blocked and effluent has to be tankered away.

Council chiefs have reported: "Some smells may, therefore, develop depending on the prevailing weather condition."

Mr Bill Lomax, Bolton Council's head of drainage and technical management, said: If the work was not done, we could have the situation where a sewer collapses and the whole of the town centre could be closed."

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