Labour start the process of closing Montrose School

At last night Children Young People Scrutiny Committee I tried to get the debate of closing this school to a Full Council Meeting but the Independent Councillors backed Labour to send the issue back to the Labour Cabinet. This means that they will do nothing new and will now start the process of closing the school, whereby if the debate had gone back to full Council we could have tried to debate this more and get more information and find out more.

At the meeting it was disclosed that the school was in spacial measures, which means Ofsted had concerns over the performance of the school, and as soon as this was order was put on the school, Labour stopped the school from taking new children. Then they argued last night they needed to close the school as there where hardly any children going to the school, well there will not be any children there if you stop any children going to it. Labour just bled this school dry. They cannot blame any one else but themselves.

Also the Council disclosed that this might not be the end to closing more special needs schools in the borough and more could follow.

Alley Gates Updates

On the 16th of April I said that alley gates had been agreed for Eccleston Street alley. I spoke to the team overlooking the project last night to ask where they were up to. I understand that the keys have now sent out to all the residents. The team also inform me that the gates have now been made and that they are just being galvanised and painted and should be installed within the next two weeks.

Since doing this scheme and highlighting it so many people have asked me to do this from cutting off the alley at Spring Gardens to a similar scheme of Eccleston street for Trafalgar Road/ Avondale Street in Wigan. This is one that I feel needs it sooner rather than later and I will be working to get this done.

Driving me mad !

One thing that drives me mad is political correctness going mad. One area that does it for me of tipping me over the edge is when Labour say we are all equal and we should treat it that way. Then say areas like Platt Bridge are areas of deprivation, which may be the case, so we have to give them more money than people in Whitley, Standish and Shevinton etc.

One of the things at the moment is for getting people to go to the gym more for example in the areas of deprivation. Labour argument is people in Whitley and Standish etc can afford it themselves and they can just go and do it. I argue against this as the people in these areas work just as hard as any one. Working long hours miles away from home. I know people in these areas working in North and West Yorkshire and travel there and back each day. That is some travelling. They simply just cannot drive for two hours and then say I think I will go to the gym.

People of all areas should be treated equally and money taken out of areas like Whitley, Standish etc should have their share of the money that they put in.

Labour Try to shut another Special School

Labour have started the move to close another Special School. Montrose in Pemberton is the school in question and Labour say there is no other option as there will be only 21 pupils there next year.

As many of you will be aware Labour shut Mere Oaks and when they said that Labour claimed that once the children get split up the other schools will be saved. Labour knew the figures there at that time. Why did they not see the problem coming?

One of the answer is that Labour stop people going to the school and that puts a strangle hold on the school. Also they get the rumour mill going and then parents then do not let their children go there as it might close. Again this helps Labour shut the schools.

If Labour are good at one thing they are good at shutting schools.

I have called this in. What this means that Labour will have to put things on hold and the issue will have to go before the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. At this meeting we will discuss the issue and I will be proposing to save this school.

Blog makeover

I have given the blog a bit of a make over. With a new colour scheme that hopefully makes the different sections stands out a bit more. Also I have put in new features with web links to other useful web sites. Also what the newspaper have said about me plus a count down to the election. Why not put your cursor over the count Down Counter and see the hidden message. Also a weather forecast for Wigan for the next 5 days.

George Formby Statue to be moved

Today the George Formby Statue will be unveiled in his new home. He was unveiled a couple of years ago in the Grand Arcade, Wigan. This was in a corridor towards the back of the arcade. At the time Wigan Council was trying to stop this from happening and would not give planning permission anywhere else.

After all this time a new home in the centre of the Grand Arcade, next to the information desk has been found and he will be unveiled later today at 2 pm. Why not come down and see it all happen.

See you there.

Queen Visit

Today the queen will be visiting the North West. She is coming to Heinz factory and then going to open the Leigh Sports Village. After that she will be taking a lunch with Councillors and her guests. I have been invited to the opening, which I will be going too, but I will not be taking the free lunch at the cost of Taxpayers. Whilst many said I should have done this I believe that I should not. I did ask if I could pay for my own meal but this was not allowed so I made my mind up not to go. This is not to disrespect the Queen but to keep to my promise of not taking any free meals or drinks. I thought me paying for my own meal would have been okay but Labour tried to shove me on their Gravy Train. I will not be getting on the Labour or Tories gravy train and after another Tory MP has been found to claim his expenses for a floating duck house I cannot believe that they continue on these freebies.

Public behind Webcast

In last night's Wigan Evening post they reported how at the last Full Council how the Labour and Tories voted against my motion of recording the Council meeting and then putting it on the web so people of Wigan can see what gets discussed in the Chamber, who votes which way and everything else.

I put this to Council for a couple of reason sorting out behaviour would be one of them and also and more importantly it would encourage more people to vote, one way or another.

Most people on the Wigan Evening Post are in favour of this and I have included a link below so you can see the article and also the comments of the public.

http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Row-breaks-out-over-20k.5278077.jp

After all Wigan has the most CCTV cameras in per square foot in the the Town Centre but done in the Council Camber. Like many of the comments on the Evening Post web site. If Labour and the Tories do not want this what have they got to hide?

Mesnes Park Update

There has been a lot of talk about Mesnes Park. The Wigan Leisure Trust have got money to renovate the Park. But they want to put a depot in the middle of the Park and make a new entrance of Park Road. This would create a dangerous black spot where there have been a number of accidents already. It is a dangerous bend and by putting an entrance on it would risks lives.

Putting a depot in the middle of a Victorian Park is ludicrous. There have been a large number of objections to these proposals and I too have fought against them. Once this strong feeling came out then the Leisure Trust have said they would re look at the plans. They are about disclose what they propose to do and submit for the planning application, which I have made sure will go before the planning Committee rather than just get some one rubber stamping it through. There is a meeting tomorrow afternoon on this and if any one wants to go please email me and I will let you know the place and time.

Old Town Hall Site

Many will know that this sites needs cleaning up and something to be done with it. I have been involved with the developers for some time as they contacted me and complained about the Council and the lack of help they where giving to them to get this site developed. I looked into it and agreed.

The owners are looking to get the site cleaned up and then sort the planning permission sorted out for a new hotel to be put on the site. The plan is for the developers of the new joint service centre will use the site for storage etc and fence the site off plus clean it up for two years. Once that has complete the planning permission for the new hotel should be through and then they can get the Hotel started to be built.

What amazes me in this site is the fact for years the Council have been complaining about the site and the developers wanted to get it developed but getting no help from the Council. I wonder why?

More Labour Sleaze !

What disgust me with Wigan Council and especially the Labour Party in Wigan is the sleaze. In recent years they have had one of their Councillors convict of having Child Porn on his computer, he is now in jail for this and other offences. Also the Wigan Labour Chairman was given a job in Wigan Council, talk about look after your own. But this just gets better This persons name was Dorothy Abbott. Her role for Wigan Council was to advice employees what benefits they were entitled to claim. I had complained to Wigan Council to have her removed from her role as officers cannot attack elected members and vice versa. The Labour leaflets had her name on as the agent, so would not anyone with one ounce of common sense would say there is a conflict of interest here.

Anyway to get back to the bigger story was that she was convicted of benefit fraud of a grand scale. This was to the tune of over £28 000. She had to pay this money back quick to avoid jail. She must have sold her house and to pay the money back. So here she is a benefit cheat homeless what do Wigan Council go and do? Give her a Council house which is a bungalow. These are like gold dust. There are so many elderly people that would benefit from one of these rare and unique properties but yet Labour look after their own, including benefits cheats.

Steps cleaned up.

On the post on the blog on Thursday 7 May I said about the steps at bottling wood and how dangerous they where.

Each Ward in Wigan has what is called a beat it team where they come in 4 times a year. Last week was one of the weeks that the beat it team was in the Ward and I had asked them, like I requested, to clean the steps up. A lot better now and also I had requested that the engineers dept replace the hand rail. As you can see this has been done too. The next and final part of the project is the steps will be resurfaced so that they are all level.

What is really interesting about this project is the fact that some one else is trying to claim credit for it. George Davies who is the Labour candidate went into the local press and said that the dam that that the Environment Agency want to build in the valley he is in favour of this and the Environment Agency should put something back into the area by paying for these repairs. First I am against the dam being built and second the residents pay their Council Tax so why could not the Council pay for it, hence why I got in touch with the Council. What is really interesting about George Davies is that the Wigan Council Legal Dept has confirmed that he has NO power in the authority and cannot get jobs done as he is no longer a Councillor.

Thought of the Day !

The Mp's row just keep on going and now all of a sudden a sense of ethics comes to them. After days of exposure in the press they all want to give money back. How thoughtful of them. The thing that comes to me is, lets take Hazel Blears for example. Here she is saying she has done nothing wrong but just for the fun of it I am going to pay the Tax man some money back. Now that to be says I have done something wrong and because it is the tax man that she is giving the money to I would say in my opinion that it is a form of tax evasion. If this is not the case a sense or morality just does not wash with me so it's a bribe to the electorate to vote for her again.

To be fair it is not just Hazel that has done the flipping exercise and members of other party's are guilty of it has well. Maybe it is not just an overhaul of the expenses system we need an overhaul of MP's too.

Another crossing needed !

After championing the campaign for a better crossing outside the Brockett Public House. A number of people have identifying dangerous crossings around Wigan

Another crossing which needs to have a crossing is in Scholes at the Salvation Army crossing over. A number of elderly people walk from Wigan up towards Hardybutts and Darlignton street areas. When they get to this busy crossing there is no safe crossing and you have to take your chances. A number of elderly people say that they know that they are not the quickest at crossing and if they try and cross between the traffic lights signal changes they do not have enough time.

I have taken this up with the Council and they say that the road is not busy enough for a crossing. I wonder if it was one of their parents that had to cross this road if they would still think the same way ?

Tesco Trolly's cleaned up

As I report problems that I am dealing with I think it is only right to give updates and report when things have been resolved.

A couple of weeks ago I said that I was dealing with all the Tesco Trolly's that where in the River Douglas. I contacted Wigan Council and also I visited Tesco also to discuss the problem. I am pleased to say that the Trolly's have been cleaned out of the river now and hopefully we now need to look at keeping it this way.

I will be monitoring the issue on a regular basis now and keep the blog updated with whether we have been successful in keeping the trolly's out.

MP's like their Money !

I see that today See's the issue of the publishing of MP's expenses that they have been trying to hide for months in and through the courts.

I note that they say the rules need to be changed as the rules are out of date. I wonder if they are, are is it the MP's having been playing the system and they should change. For example an MP lives miles away from London, do they need a second home in London? Of course they do. But rather than saying I will be getting a second home in London they then change it to say the home in London is the main Home and where they previously lived is the second home. The only way the rules need to change is to say what is a second home and what is not.

Obviously the MP's have brought this onto themselves, they deserve everything they get in terms of bad press, as for expenses they do not deserve everything they get!

Steps to be cleaned and repaired

The steps at bottling wood have been in the paper lately. The Labour Candidate has said he is in favour of the Dam being built in Bottling Wood and he said that the Enviroment Agency, who are building the dam, should pay for the steps at Bottling Wood to be repaired. What do people pay their Council Tax for?

Therefore I have asked the Council to first of all clean the steps. As you can see their is a lot of litter on them making them dangerous. The clean up will take place this week, as the beat team are going in to clean them up.

I have also asked for the rail to be repairedand replaced and then the steps to be relaid. The Council have confirmed that they are now going to do this and work should be starting soon.

Wigan Council puts lives at risk

I have raised the issue of a dangerous sign in Wigan Town Centre. The sign is on Market Street. The sign is right at the side of the road and people walking from the market exit to the bus station are at risk. The reason for this is because when they walk from the tunnel exit of the outside market walking to the bus station the natural walk would hide them from drivers that are driving down Market street. The road is normally shut but opens at 4pm and people are not expecting cars to come down.

I have asked the Council to move this sign but they will not as they get money for this sign. Making Wigan Council more interested in money rather than peoples safety.

Cllr Gareth Fairhurst said,

" When these signs came before the Planning Committee I objected to them as I
thought this sign was a hazard. I have seen two near misses now at this
sign and unless the Council act and put people's lives first rather than bring
money in for a toilet in Leigh then I fear the worse."

Labour Candidate cheats again !

Labour Candidate George Davies found out that there is a large number of people in Bottling Wood are against the new proposed dam he did not know what to do as Labour are in favour of this project. He then found out about a petition with over 400 names on it. He asked the lady who who had collected the names if he could borrow the petition as he was going in the paper with campaign, she agreed. He then said he would, if she wanted to pass the petition on to Deputy Labour Leader Cllr David Molyneux.

When the lady in question saw the paper article she was horrifed that the story had been twisted to say that these 400 names wanted new steps to the woods and that the Environment Agency, who are building the dam, should pay for them.

She rang George Davies with her disgust and to ask for her petition back. He has never returned her calls. The lady found out about the work I was doing about trying to get this dam stopped and asked me to get involved. She asked if I could find out if the petition is in the Council, I found out it is not, and she asked me to try and get this back. After a call from me to the Cllr David Molyneux to tell him about George Davies actions he said he would try and sort it out. Within hours a letter was pushed through the Lady's door to say he had passed the petition to the Planning Dept. It had not as I had asked the planning Dept.

It is clear this lady has been tricked and this should never happen and as a candidate he can get away with all these kinds of tricks. Does nothing to me but people that trick people put the whole politics arena in question. We are not all like that ! All George Davies wanted was his picture in the paper and at any cost to the general public and at the expense of this lady's hard work. He should be ashamed of himself.

Labour Shutting More Schools

Some of you might be aware that Labour are looking to close yet more Schools. They are dressing it up as Building Schools for Future. Yet more spin. Whilst there might be need for some changes there is no need to go to the length and extremes that Labour are doing. What is strange in this is the Conservative Party are supporting Labour this and not opposing it. Yet more proof there is no difference between Labour and the Tories.

If you take Standish and Shevington High Schools. Labour are looking to close both schools and build an new school in the middle. The Tories have even asked people where they want it to be buildt. WHAT? People in both Standish and Shevington do not want their schools to close.

Standish High school is about 30 years old. Not that old and since then the school has had a number of massive extensions, they are even planning to build some more class rooms over the summer but want to close the school in a couple of years

Shevington High School might be having some more problems with school numbers but a Wigan Independent Conservative Councillor has come up with a great plan. If the school is not full and they do not need all the school, why not change some of the school into a leisure centre. This is something they have done over in Newton le Willows. There is a site where there is Selwyn Jones Sports Centre Ashton Rd, Newton Le Willows and also Newton le Willow High School. By doing the same kind of thing at the Shevington site it lets Shevington still to have a high school and provides the north side of the borough with a leisure centre. Leigh has a pool, Ashton has a pool, Hindley has a pool Standish, Shevington and surrounding areas does not. But yet Wigan Council collects high Council tax from these areas.

People in Wigan do not want to be like America with massive High Schools where over 2000+ people go with lots of yellow buses go but they want local high school.

The picture of Wigan Independent Conservatives Cllr Debbie Fairhurst who is one of the ward Councillor's who said Labour are looking to close Labour School. Labour said that this was scaremongering