Bookings at a Wigan coronavirus testing centre are no longer being accepted due to a surge in demand.
Appointments at the Chapel Lane centre have been temporarily suspended while staff deal with a backlog in bookings, Wigan Council leader David Molyneux confirmed.
Councillor Molyneux said a large number of residents have been attempting to use the independent testing centre due to failures in the national system.
It is hoped the centre will soon be back up and running as a “matter of urgency”.
Council leader, David Molyneux, said: “It is absolutely unacceptable that six months into the pandemic we still haven’t got a proper testing regime in place and residents are being told to travel for miles to get a test.
“The testing centre at Chapel Lane operates independently to the national system and has limited capacity for general testing.
“Like many other local authorities, we are seeing a large number of residents attempting to use our local testing centre as a result of failures in the national testing system.
“Our team has been working hard to accommodate as many appointments as possible, but given this surge in demand, we have been forced to temporarily suspend the online booking system for new appointments at Chapel Lane while we deal with the backlog.
“We will be pushing our case to the government to ask how issues can be resolved as a matter of urgency.”
