Work begins on new Wingates industrial estate ‘ecology areas’

Councillor Deirdre McGeown at the entrance to the ecological area

Work is going to begin on Monday to create new ecology areas as part of a major new industrial estate at Wingates — but there are fears about the looming threat of thousands of lorries on Westhoughton’s roads.

The developers Harworth have informed residents that they plan to begin work on creating a habitat for birds, amphibians and small mammals, which will include 10 new wildlife ponds, windflower grassland, native tree planting and bat boxes.

The work is expected to take around nine weeks to complete.

Later in the year Harworth will then begin work on diverting the A6 as part of a plan to reconfigure the major road, ahead of construction of a massive new industrial estate.

More than 2,000 extra lorries a day are expected to be on Westhoughton’s streets once the site is fully occupied, which is a huge concern to residents.

Liberal Democrat councillors have challenged Harworth and Bolton Council to explain how they intend to control the flow of HGVs, but they have admitted they couldn’t stop them passing through Westhoughton streets such as Church Street.

Westhoughton North and Hunger Hill councillor Deirdre McGeown said: “The creation of the ecological area is welcome but don’t forget that it is only a small part of this massive site. There’s potentially more harm than good being done to local wildlife.

The ecological area is marked in red on this map

“We are extremely worried about the impact of thousands of lorries and vehicles clogging up Westhoughton’s already congested roads. By their own admission, the developers and the council say they can’t stop this from happening.

“New jobs will be created on this site but we want to see that as many of those jobs are for local people and in particular that training and apprenticeship opportunities are in place for young people.”

The developer has said that the existing track down the side of the ATS Euromaster will remain open during the construction of the ecological zone.

The ecological area is dwarfed by the rest of the industrial site