Volunteers working during the Denshaw Band Contest as part of the Whit Friday celebrations were “abused” by “angry motorists” frustrated by “huge tailbacks” caused by a motorway closure, it has been claimed.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Garth Harkness, who represents Saddleworth North, has hit out at National Highways for going ahead with the planned closure of the M62 motorway from 9pm on Friday, June 2 despite being warned of the “chaos” it would cause.

Commenting on the closure, he said: “The band contest organisers were concerned over the chaos this would cause. I shared and raised those views and we asked for a delay on the motorway closure till 12am.

“There is plenty of roadworks and speed restrictions on the M62 with little going on so this shouldn’t have been an issue.

“Oldham Council put up additional measures to mitigate but the highways agency did nothing. As predicted, they didn’t work and there were huge tailbacks.

“As a result, angry motorists were abusive to local volunteers who tried to manage the problem.”

National Highways has been carrying out resurfacing work on the M62 between junction 22 (Rockingstone Moss) and Scammonden Bridge since May 15.

Cllr Harkness went on to call the agency’s decision to go ahead with closure “shameful”.

“They made a decision and left volunteers to deal with the aftermath which is shameful.

“They should not be expected to put up with abuse because of a decision they made that based on previous issues in Denshaw was never going to work. Thankfully the police came to help clear up the Highways Agency’s mess.”

In response, National Highways said that by the time they received a request to delay the road closure it was “too late” to change the schedule.

Also read:Crowds fill Saddleworth villages to celebrate Whit Friday

Gordon Behrens, National Highways project manager, said: “Ahead of the Denshaw Whit Friday Band Contest, we agreed to provide extra signage at junctions 23 and 24 of the M62 on Friday evening, advising the A640 was closed with no access to Denshaw Crossroads.

“This was to counter the risk of vehicles being directed, through sat nav systems, to the A640 at Outlane and Denshaw.

“By the time we received any request to delay the start of our work, through an email via our customer contact centre, it was unfortunately too late to change our schedule. We would have had to cancel Friday’s work altogether, which, at that stage, was not possible without impacting tens of thousands of road users.

“Ahead of important events such as the Denshaw Whit Friday Band Contest, we work closely with our partners to ensure traffic keeps moving as smoothly as possible.

“We strongly advise drivers to plan their journeys in advance, check traffic conditions before heading off and to follow signposted diversion routes and not sat navs.”