ENGINEERS got themselves into a rather sticky situation when a road repair went wrong.

Bury Council sent highways staff to Bleasdale Close, Unsworth, to fill in a number of potholes.

And though residents said they were grateful that the local authority was improving the road surface, a problem arose in the process.

Because the day of the repairs — July 19 — was the hottest day of the year so far, the tarmac could not set, so people driving and walking by the filled-in potholes unwittingly spread the sticky substance.

One Bleasdale Court resident, who asked not to be named, said: "It was very sticky and got everywhere. It was awful.

"The sticky tar ended up getting on the pavements, in driveways and on our carpets. It looks horrible."

Several residents made written complaints to the council and said they were not satisfied with the reply.

"At first they said that the rain wash it away and, after we went back a couple more times, they said they would send someone out, but we cannot really tell the difference," said the resident.

Community campaigner and Unsworth resident Steve Middleton, who is a former Lib Dem election candidate, has been taking the issue up on behalf of the residents.

He said: "The council needs to make a full admission and say that they are sorry to the residents.

"After that, they need to come up with a plan to say how they are going to resolve the situation.

“It’s no good just writing bland letters to the residents, they need to go round and speak to them."

Bury Council's environment representative, Cllr Alan Quinn, said: "Unfortunately, due to the hot weather at the time there was slightly more loose material than normally expected.

"We have since swept the road to remove this excess material."

Cllr Quinn added: "We are constantly striving to increase efficiency and, as a part of this process, we are trialling the use of a spray injection patching machine to improve how we repair potholes throughout the borough.

"To date, this machine has quadrupled the amount of pothole repairs carried out by a three-person team.

"Approximately 1,500 pot holes have already been repaired effectively using this method.

"One slight drawback of this repair technique is that often a quantity of loose material is left on the surface of the road.

"However, this loose material usually quickly disperses to provide a permanent repair.

"The potholes on Bleasdale Close were repaired using this innovative technique."