Sheepfoot Lane in Oldham will shut for more than a year starting next spring while United Utilities carries out a £5 million sewer expansion aimed at slashing the number of times untreated waste spills into the town’s rivers.

The closure, which will affect most of the road that links Boundary Park—home of Latics—with Oldham Road, begins in spring 2025 and will force drivers onto signed diversions while engineers install larger pipes designed to cut storm-overflow spills from 49 last year to fewer than ten annually in Plumpton Clough and the River Irk.

Chris Borradaile, the firm’s county business leader for wastewater in Greater Manchester, said: “This is an important scheme that will help to improve the water quality in Plumpton Clough and the River Irk. We are playing our part to improve the health of the region’s rivers and delivering the step change that customers and stakeholders want to see.” He added that the work forms part of a five-year investment programme to curb pollution, a pledge that follows mounting criticism of United Utilities after disclosures that more than 140 million litres of waste were pumped into Lake Windermere between 2021 and 2023 and after the Manchester Ship Canal Company won a Supreme Court appeal over historic and future sewage damage.

Oldham Council, Transport for Greater Manchester and Oldham Athletic are collaborating on traffic plans to protect residents and businesses, while an information drop-in will run from 2 pm to 7 pm on 20 January at Oldham Event Centre inside the football club to outline the works and diversion routes.

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