Our estate has a MOTORWAY running down the middle… we think council treats people on one side better than the other
MOST neighbours have to pop across the road to borrow a cup of sugar – but on one estate they are separated by a MOTORWAY.
The M66 slices through the middle of the Dickie Bird estate in Bury, Greater Manchester, and the noise drives locals mad.
Locals use two passageways that travel under the motorway to go shopping and speak to friends.
Debra Mahon, who grew up on estate, said to The Sun: “They are the only way in and out if you are on foot. So we have to use them.
“You just get used to it around here. “
Pensioner Hilda Neary , whose Ferngrove terrace faces the elevated section of motorway, said: “It’s pure misery. I can’t sit out in the garden because of the noise.
“Some of the neighbours have had new windows fitted that keep out the noise. But mine have not arrived yet.
“The noise from the wagons seems to be getting worse not better. I wonder if its because the lorries are getting bigger.
“And then there is muck that comes off the lorries into the road. In the winter its worse.”
The estate, built in the 1930s, is officially known as Chesham Fold but locals still know it as Dickie Bird.
Stephen Patton, who lives a few doors down, said: “I am still waiting for my new windows too.
“I have lived here for 20 years now. I would say you get used to the noise but not the dirt.
“It comes off the wagons and covers my car in filth. “
Local mum Kelsey Wilkinson, who also lives on Ferngrove, said: ” I lived in this house for nine years now and it’s fine. I grew up here so the motorway is just the way it is.
“The noise does not really bother me at all. My family are just down the road so this is home to me.”
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News in 2019 Duncan Smith from the Chesham Fold Tenants and Residents Association
said: “There’s still a bit of rivalry.
“Recently the houses have been having new kitchens and bathrooms put in.
“They started the work at the top end of the estate and there was a bit of grumbling from people on this side of the motorway asking why they didn’t get it first.”
Traffic bound for Manchester city centre, nearby industrial estates and the M62 all pass through.
The section of motorway was built in the 1970s at a time when the UK’s transport was being expanded .
Concrete walls and fences were put on either side of the motorway to reduce the noise.
Then transport secretary Bill Rodgers cut the ribbon on the new motorway in 1978.
A spokesman for Bury Council said that the window replacement programme was not finished.