Family’s ‘brick alley’ bypass action call

Mum complains police ‘showed little interest’

A FAMILY who narrowly avoided serious injury when youths hurled bricks at cars on the Oldham bypass have called for an immediate shake up of the way the police deal with the problem.

Paul Milner, and son Jack, aged three, were lucky to escape unhurt when a brick shattered their windscreen.

But his wife Marie, who was not in the car, was even more alarmed when, she says, police appeared to show little interest in the incident. She has now lodged a formal complaint.

She said: “The police told me that perpetrators could not be identified from CCTV if they were wearing hoodies and that they may also be too young to be prosecuted even if they were identified.

“They seemed to be looking for reasons not to investigate the incident before they’d even looked into it, but this is a very common problem on that road and something clearly needs to be done.”

The drama unfolded as Paul and Jack were travelling along the bypass from Saddleworth towards Oldham when youths standing at the side of the road threw a brick soon after they had passed Mumps station.

The windscreen shattered, but Paul managed to reach a safe spot from where he called the police.

And it is not the first time that the Milner family have been targeted on the notorious stretch of road.

Marie said: “The exact same thing happened to us six years ago and on that occasion and Paul and I chased them.

“We followed them to Glodwick and found they were really contrite, but before we knew it we were bundled into a police van and taken back to our car because the police thought we were going to cause a riot.

“The children were really sorry and there was no animosity. We just wanted them to understand that they could have really hurt someone, but the police told us that we’d nearly caused a riot, because some people had gathered round. We felt at the time that they didn’t want to investigate the issue for fear of stirring up racial tension.

“They’ve since explained to us that the children couldn’t be prosecuted because they were below the age of 10, and we accept that it was nothing to do with race, but the fact is that we are six years on and that bypass is still a dangerous road. They need to change their approach before someone is seriously injured or killed.”

Marie is now calling for the police to start working with the council and wants high fences to be built to shield the bypass and for talks to be given in schools. She also thinks that cages should be built on the bridges.

She said: “The police told me it was a council issue, but how are the council supposed to know there’s a problem if the police don’t tell them?”

A police spokesman said: “An investigation into this crime has been launched. Incidents like this are very serious, and could cause severe injury or even kill someone.”