'My daughter came to visit me for her tea yesterday and it took her an hour to get two miles'

Villagers on the outskirts of Wigan are being ‘driven to despair’ by choked-up roads, too much new-build housing and a GP surgery struggling to handle the influx of new patients. That was the unanimous verdict of people in Standish as the Local Democracy Reporting Service watched the roads fill up in the village centre at school ‘going home time’.

Residents, some of whom were brought up in Standish, say they have watched it transform over a 30-year period from a ‘delightful, quiet little village’ into a place now renowned for chaos at its central intersection where Preston Road, High Street, School Lane, and Market Street meet. Businesses near the junction also talk of regular minor accidents, drivers jumping red lights, blasting their horns, incidents of road rage and people turning left onto High Street from Market Street, even though it is prohibited.

The chaos was worse this week when traffic on Rectory Lane, one of the roads leading into Standish, became gridlocked as a result of temporary traffic lights on nearby School Lane at its junction with Quaker’s Place. According to Ian Hart, who runs Winnard Property Group’s office in the heart of Standish, there have been ‘constant road works’ within a one-mile radius of the village centre since October 2023.

“It’s been awful for a long time,” said Ian. “But it’s been particularly bad during the last 18 months. We’ve watched accidents, people jumping lights, and people getting out of their cars and threatening other drivers. It’s crazy.

Stephanie Andrews, 43, the manager of the nearby Galloways bakers shop agreed. “People are beeping their horns, arguing and falling out,” she said. “We’ve seen lots of minor accidents.

“I live in Beech Hill which is about two miles away.