Anger after traffic diversion sees up to 500 HGVs and lorries roar down suburban street every night

A PENSIONER exasperated by a road closure that sees his suburban road become a nightly diversion route has filmed more than 500 HGVs and lorries thundering past his door in ONE night.

Alan Collinge, 69, caught the parade of trucks hurtling past using CCTV outside of his home on Manchester Road in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

After 12 sleepless nights, Alan decided to film the source of his frustration, which Highways England say is due to last until Friday though Alan claims he has been told it will then be intermittent for up almost a YEAR.

Alan, a retired CCTV company director, said: “This will be the twelfth night that the lorries have been hurtling past and it could last for the next 11 months while the M60 westbound is closed.

“We’re sick of it and we’ve been sick of it since the road closures started three weeks ago.

“If you can imagine its like thunder and but not just the noise but the vibrations too, its about 100 trucks an hour which is like a peel of thunder every minute.

“It’s not just affecting me but hundreds of people who live up the road. There’s about 500 people on this street who are suffering the same fate.

“Up the road were the diversion joins back onto the motorway there’s a row of two up, two down terraced houses set right on the pavement that must really be suffering.

“It’s not as if you’re being woken up once or twice in the night. These trucks are driving past all night, every night, so you’re lucky if you get any sleep at all.

“We haven’t been notified about any long term closures, we’re expected to go online and to check if we’re going to get a good nights sleep or not.

“I can always catch up on our sleep in the day, but some poor sod have to try and get a day’s work done after a sleepless night. It’s making people ill.”

The M60 is being closed westbound on weeknights from junction 16, for Swinton and the A666, between 10pm and 5am – part of a three-week carriageway inspection project ahead of safety repairs.

But Alan and his wife Lynne who have lived on the A666 for 16 years, are not the only ones suffering, as other residents of the A666 have taken to an online forum to express their anger.

One said: “What is wrong with a contraflow system on the motorway, they just don’t think.”

Another said: “As early as 05:15am truckers use the font of the house as a truck-stop engines ticking away while they sup their coffee.”

Some have even taken to taking sleeping pills to cope with the noise.

They said: “Last night I took a couple of sleeping tablets it helped a little I was only woken twice between 12pm and 5am. Why should I be taking tranquillisers to achieve a basic human need?”

A spokesperson for Highways England said: “We need to close a two-mile stretch of the anti-clockwise M60 near Swinton to carry out inspections and repairs to maintain the safety of the motorway. The closures are taking place overnight when traffic levels are at their lowest.

“We appreciate that the work is disruptive to residents on the diversion route and are sorry for the inconvenience caused. However, it would not be feasible to close the motorway during the day as it would lead to very serious congestion in the local neighbourhood. The work is due for completion by Friday June 24.”