HARD-FACED thieves waited until workmen had finished laying a footpath alongside a new clinic then promptly stole it.

Forty-odd tonnes of ballast and gritstone were laid and rolled along a well-used pathway between Shakerley estate and Tyldesley, but when contractor John Ellis returned to check the work almost a third of the 200 yards section of track across Shakerley Common had disappeared!

"It's the first time I've experienced anything like it," said a dumbfounded John, whose company Conservation Construction North West carried out the work for Wigan Council.

"Somebody broke the lock on the barrier at Poplar Street, raked up the compacted stone surface, shovelled it onto a vehicle and drove off with it.

"Perhaps somebody wanted the stone for their own footpath or driveway."

Wigan Council's assistant public rights of way officer Jason Evans-Smith said: "Police have knocked on nearby homes to see if anybody saw anything. But if anyone did they would probably have thought it was the contractors doing more work.

"It's annoying when you are trying to improve the environment. This is a well-used path and it was muddy and well rutted. We'll have to relay the missing surface."