One council's actions have left a community devastated, with rat swarming and sewage overflowing - Alex Armstrong

I’d seen some reports and had received messages from desperate locals about a small residential area torn apart by a massive industrial development. But nothing prepared me for what I actually found.

Open fields where horses once grazed freely. Views from garden fences that felt untouched, almost timeless. A haven for dog walkers. All of it gone. Completely erased.

In its place, colossal mega-warehouses that I can only compare to the size of an airport or football stadium. Sixty feet high, looming over two-storey homes. Grey steel monsters, just metres from family houses. They have swallowed the last stretch of countryside whole, casting permanent shadows that strip away sunlight, privacy, and any sense of peace.

Walking through the estate with residents like John from the Astley Warehouse Action Group, the overwhelming feeling was grief. It felt like a wake. A community mourning something they treasured, ripped from them without apology. Except this loss was forced upon them, and now they are made to live under the shadow of it every single day.

Construction to build Astley business park alone has already done serious damage. Piling has left homes trembling, floors uneven, cracks forming. After rain, gardens flood knee-deep because the natural drainage that once protected these homes was ripped away without a second thought. The bunds, small raised banks meant to block noise and visibility, are laughably inadequate.

Residents say water now pours off them straight into their gardens, destroying their properties. Rats, never a problem before, now infest the area in shocking numbers. Floodlights turn night into a sickly orange haze, bright enough to rival an airport. Sleep has vanished for some of them. Homes that once represented a lifetime of work are now effectively worthless.

How did this all happen under residents noses? How did this go unchallenged? How on earth did the council get away with this?

“We weren’t properly warned.” A phrase I heard again and again at the doors I knocked on.

Planning documents promised modest, low-level units. What arrived was something entirely different. Despite ninety-six formal objections, Labour run Wigan Council approved the development in June 2024.

Consultation engagement was, seemingly, a total farce. A couple of A4 notices on lamp posts, residents told me, a small newspaper advert, and letters many residents say never even arrived. But that is enough under the law, apparently, as none of this is illegal, before you ask. Councils can just do the bare minimum.

Residents told me time and again that they were misled and not engaged in any meaningful consultation. That feeling is verified by an independent auditor who later called the process “wholly inadequate.” The council insists it followed procedure and is now simply monitoring the site.

Independent planners I spoke to could not understand how an environmental impact assessment was avoided, given the scale of what now stands there. The damage is obvious. The answers are not.

And it gets worse. Residents and journalists who have dared to speak out and voice their concerns are now facing legal threats.

Top brass Wigan councillors have still not met with them. Not once. No accountability, no explanation, no willingness to face the people whose lives they have turned upside down.

Perhaps facing this monstrosity will be too confronting for them? Instead they bury their heads in the sand and cower inside their council chambers, afraid to face their own constituents.

These are not petty complaints. These are desperate cries from ordinary families watching their homes, their health and their futures unravel, while the very authority meant to protect them turned its back in favour of development and profit.

And the nightmare is only just beginning.

Residents are now bracing for a constant, relentless flow of heavy goods vehicles. The first tenant, Whistl UK Ltd, has applied to run up to 60 HGVs and 95 trailers from a single unit, day and night, every day of the year. Engines roaring. Brakes screeching. Diesel fumes hanging in the air. Vibrations rattling homes that are already damaged. There will be no escape.

And for what? These lorries will drive past a busy school just meters away and then onward nearly twenty minutes just to reach the nearest motorway, passing more suitable industrial sites along the way. Another slap in the face that residents often told me about.

Wigan Council talks about jobs and opportunity. They might say it is a price worth paying for “growth”. Residents say they were promised around 500 jobs from the site, however, so far, as construction nears completion, only five have materialised.

As I drove away, those warehouses dominated my rear-view mirror. Not just buildings, but symbols. A monument to profit over people. A permanent reminder of decisions made without consequence for those forced to live with them.

The wider debate about development and community will go on elsewhere. In Astley, the damage is already done. And with round-the-clock HGV traffic about to begin, it is only going to get worse.

What is absolutely clear is this. The council has failed in its most basic duty. To protect the people it supposedly represents. That duty was cast aside. Frankly, they should all resign in disgrace but that would be a first for politicians in 2026, wouldn't it? Whether they are held accountable for that failure now lies with the voters.