A COMPANY boss fears that wagons which mount the pavement outside his factory could demolish a wall and injure or kill his workers.

The heavy goods vehicles have already caused damage to the roof and guttering of Stanlan Rollers, in Badger Street, Bury.

Company owner Andrew Sharples says the wagons have been forced on to the kerb to manoeuvre through the entrance of timber and builders' merchant Jewson's, directly across the road.

"I'm very worried that one of the walls could come down and kill or injure my workers," he said.

Now, after lodging a complaint with the Manchester regional office of Jewson's, an urgent meeting is to be held to try to resolve the problem.

Mr Sharples, who runs the six-strong company which manufactures rollers for the paper industry, explained: "Three times during the past six months I've had to have the roof repaired and my wall looked at. "Quite simply, this road isn't wide enough to take these 40ft articulated lorries without hitting my wall or damaging the roof."

He added: "I've had to fit six new roof panels to replace the ones that were damaged. And the wagons have also slowly pushed the pavement into the ground.

"The simple answer is for Jewson's to widen their entrance gates or move them elsewhere."

Mr Sharples said he made repeated complaints to Jewson's in Bury, Bury Council, and the police about the problem, but nothing was done.

He then wrote a letter to Jewson bosses at their regional office in Manchester.

He labelled the current situation involving wagons using Jewson's was "hazardous bordering on the dangerous" and urged the builders merchants to seek "more suitable points of entry" for the lorries.

Mr David Wells, a spokesman for Jewson's, told the Bury Times: "We received the letter from Mr Sharples and have replied to it.

"Obviously, we don't like what is happening and we wouldn't want it to continue."

He said a meeting had been arranged to try to find a solution to the problem and promised that any damage to Stanlan would be repaired by his company or their suppliers.

"We are quite happy to put everything right and we will be talking to Mr Sharples."