CAN you believe the cheek of the hard-faced thieves who waited until workmen had finished laying a footpath alongside a new Tyldesley clinic last week then lifted it?

Tonnes of ballast and gritstone had been laid and rolled along a path between Shakerley estate and Tyldesley, but when contractor John Ellis returned to check the work done for the council almost a third of the 200 yards section of track had disappeared!

The raiders had raked up the compacted stone, shovelled it onto a vehicle and driven off without anyone witnessing the theft. Unbelievable.

Blame the multitude of garden rakeover programmes.

Some chancer will no doubt by now have a spanking new patio - and for council tax payers it will mean a bigger bill.