For nearly two years, contractors had been toiling to create an underpass and elevated roundabout as part of the city’s £5m Manchester Road improvement scheme. Yet the visible results so far had been little more than a plethora of direction signs, frustrating hold-ups and hazards for those who risked crossing on foot.

According to the T&A reporter Bob Barton, who had been investigating the upheaval at Odsal Top during its major reconstruction, the development which had caused headaches for motorists, pedestrians and traders alike, should have been re-named “Odds and Ends Top.”

Several of the handful of businesses left in the area had reported a drop in their takings. One shopkeeper said her trade was down by 75 per cent, and local residents, particularly the elderly, had been frightened away.

There had also been a number of minor bumps as drivers tangled with the oil drums and railway sleepers that marked off the diversions. One trader, whose fish and chip shop stood almost in the midst of the unsightly mess had resigned himself to not being able to use his car after vehicular access to his premises had been cut off for the last seven months.

Contractors apparently had been hit by factors outside their control, but the progress did seem to be on course for its 1975 completion date.