Major Farington road starting to 'sink' after water leak left running for over a week by United Utilities

They claim that the carriageway where Stanifield Lane meets Centurion Way is now starting to collapse as a result of the delay.

Paul Wharton-Hardman and Jacky Alty, who represent Farington East on South Ribble Borough Council, say that the water firm has failed to act in spite of repeated reporting of the problem.

In a response to Cllr Wharton-Hardman on Twitter on Tuesday, United Utilities said that there had been “a few complications with the investigations due to how busy this road is”. The company added that it was trying to get the problem rectified as soon as possible.

However, on Wednesday evening, the firm told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it was unable to provide a timescale for the repair work to be carried out.

Cllr Wharton-Hardman said: “It concerns me that even after numerous reports to United Utilities of the road starting to sink, it has taken over a week to progress this – potentially putting road users at risk.

“[That is] despite the United Utilities website stating that ‘as soon as we know about a leak, we can sort it’.

“In addition, the thousands of litres of fresh water that have been wasted for a failure to act quickly is a disgrace – especially when the warmer weather arrives and our residents will likely be told to conserve water,” he added.

Cllr Alty condemned the fact that despite reports from both residents and councillors, “the repairs have only today been given priority”.

“I understand capacity constraints, but concerns relating to deep or hidden damage in such a high traffic volume area would have benefited from an earlier response. I am happy that progress is now being made and hope that disruption to traffic will be minimised.”

However, a United Utilities spokesperson seemed to suggest that the water may be flowing for a little longer yet.

“Due to the location of the leak and the traffic to the industrial estate, it hasn’t been possible to complete the repair as yet. Our teams will be returning to the site to resolve the issue as soon as they can.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused,” the spokesperson added.

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