SOME residents of a street will be faced with a bill of more than £1,000 while others will not have to pay a penny for major street and sewer work.

Brown Street cul-de-sac in Radcliffe, which is currently unadopted by Bury Council, is not sewered, levelled, paved or flagged.

As far back as 1983 the council agreed that it was in an unsatisfactory state and added it to the priority list of its private street works scheme.

A further list was approved in 1988 and the exact plans and costs were approved the following year.

The council's engineering consultancy manager, Mr Mike Walmsley, said: "There is nothing unusual about the length of the delay. It was caused by legal problems, VAT changes and procedural matters."

Work was carried out on half the street 25 years ago when newer properties were built and street work was carried out. At that time there was an agreement between the council and the developer for the council to adopt that half of the street.

But none of those works can be incorporated into the new street works, which were approved by the council's traffic and engineering sub-committee on Monday (Sept 1).

As a result the council has agreed to spare that half of the street from being charged again and will pay the £11,000 for the proposed work.

It means effectively that while some residents will be expected to pay more than £1,000 for the street works, others will not have to pay a penny.

Mr Walmsley said: "All the residents would have been told of such a possibility when they bought their homes. They have had an input and helped us draw up the plans during the past twelve months. So far there have been no objections."

However, the residents will shortly be receiving individual letters and there will be a period of consultation during which they will have the opportunity to oppose the plans.

Mr Walmsley said: "Under the Highways Act the residents will not be able to object to the overall principle of paying, but they can object to specific technical matters."

He added that once work was completed the road would be fully adopted by the council who would then maintain it like any other road.

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