Has it begun?

So after the Ashfield debate the Council said that they would make all of it part of the historic gardens and that they would not be selling any, that's right - any, of it off for building.

A resident of Pilgrims Way contacted us a few weeks ago and asked us to get involved with getting the footpaths at the back of Ashfield sorted, these lead down to the railway line.

Anyway as we went through the process the Council wrote to the resident and myself saying that they will repair some of the footpaths but the land was no longer part of Ashfield and now called Fairhurst Lane Reclamation Site. Also this part of the land was now transferred over to the Planning Depts ownership. The front part of Ashfield is still under Leisure and open spaces.

Here is a clip that I did last week about it.

Road Works in Standish

Here are some of the forth coming road works that will be happening in Standish.

Wigan Lane, Wigan

United Utilities will be undertaking water main connection works near to the junction with Walter Scott Avenue on Saturday 27 February 2016 and Sunday 28 February 2016. To undertake these works safely temporary traffic signals will be in operation during these works.

Wigan Road, Standish

United Utilities will be undertaking defect works near to the junction with Victoria Crescent on Monday 29 February 2016. To undertake these works safely temporary traffic signals will be in operation during off peak times.

Preston Road, Standish

United Utilities will be undertaking works to replace a manhole cover and frame outside of property number 419 on Monday 29 February 2016. To undertake these works safely temporary traffic signals will be in operation during off peak times.

Old Pepper Lane, Standish

A private contractor will be undertaking works to the carriageway and footway at the junction with Meadow Acre between Monday 29 February 2016 and  Friday 11 March 2016.  To undertake these works safely temporary traffic signals will be in operation. 

Almond Brook Road, Standish

A private contractor will be undertaking works to the site entrance and to install a sewer connection in the carriageway and footway opposite the Charnley Arms Public House  (Wainhomes Development)between Monday 29 February 2016 and  Friday 18 March 2016.  To undertake these works safely temporary traffic signals will be in operation. The traffic signals will be manned at peak hours.

Road Works with no dates

Rectory Lane, Standish

Wigan Council will be undertaking works to construct a new roundabout from the junction with Copeland Drive for approximately 250 metres in an easterly direction.  To undertake these works safely temporary traffic signals will be in operation during these works.  At present we have no actual dates confirmed but this bulletin will be updated when these become available.

Srandish High Consultation

We announced that Standish High are consulting with parents of children currently at the school about joining with a school in Chorley and becoming an Academy.

This is such an important point that we this week be getting out a consultation to every household in Standish so keep your eyes peeled for it and get it back to us asap and we can get them into the school so they can consider them with their own responses.

The week that ended.....21 Feb '16

So we are getting close to the end of February and March will soon be here. March is also the start of elections but this year seems that the opposition have started early. Whilst I have no doubt that they are trying to draw me into election fever, this wouldn't happen as there is still lots to do. Elections will soon be here and then that is the time to do elections.

One thing is the disgusting comments that I have learnt about that the Tory camp are making about my mum and the seriously ill condition she has. We had heard some comments but this week I took a call from a lady that was disgusted at what they had said. She had even agreed to help them with leaflets but after seeing their leaflet and the comments they made she is refusing to do anything for them and has now said that she will help myself, which I am grateful for. If anyone else has heard these comments please let me know. He threatens me with a solicitor letter for denying this and I look forward getting that letter as I have the evidence. I wonder what the Tory Party thinks of someone like this? Maybe interesting to find out.

For me anyone that has Cancer, and also their families, have my thoughts and prays. It's a disgusting illness that hurts so many. The sooner we can get a cure the better.

This week has been a quiet one. I attended a Committee meeting in the Town Hall and nothing was said. To be fair, whilst cordial, it would have probably been better to cancel it as there wasn't much to discuss.

We also learnt that the council have blocked my motion that I had put forward about asking the Government to change the law to allow Council to recover monies that have been paid to a Cllr who has moved away from the area and done nothing for the last 6 months. We have had a few examples of this. Two Lib Dems emigrated to Australia a few years ago. Under the current legislation a Cllr will still get their allowance for a period of 6 months. After that time the Council can remove them and call a by-election. My thought is when like the lib dems example this has happened then council's should be able to recover their money. Also I found out about a Labour Cllr Joy Birch did the same thing and when I exposed her on this blog for moving in with a new partner in Ireland then she quickly resigned, the day after. This lady is now back in Wigan and standing for Labour in Orrell. I guess they will decide if this is the kind of person they want to represent them. the thing is I hear she married the Gentleman that she went to live with, congrats to them for that, but she will try to fool the electorate by using her married name so people won't put her with the scandal that erupted when she took the money for 6 months whilst living in Ireland. I was talking to an ex Conservative Cllr for Wigan a few weeks ago, who lived near her, and she was telling me of her disgust at what she did.

I have a busy day today. I will be filming down at Ashfield as there is an interesting new development on some land down there. I will of course put the footage up here.

Also for a number of years when I was younger I played with the award winning Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra. So later I will be going back in to the Studio to record a track with them. Very exciting but yet nervous, been a few years so let's see how it turns out.

Also the Prime Minister has said that he has got the UK a great deal for staying in the EU and now we will finally get our say on the matter. Thankfully this should then stop the discussion of whether we are in or out. I hope both sides camapigns strongly and get their points out and then people can make an informed choice and then whatever the result that is the result, we have to love with it. I hope who ever loses we don't get what we have from the Scottish lot who lost their referendum but now want another go. The people of Scotland voted - live with it.

I guess UKIP will be feeling hopeful for the local elections throughout the Country as the EU referendum is a few weeks after the local elections and I would guess they will be campaigning on those grounds in the local elections, when we have that referendum after.

Either way that should be an interesting debate and let's see what comes of it.

The week that ended.....14 Feb'16

So bit of a quiet week. Last Sunday Jamie Oliver warned the Conservative Government and David Cameron that unless they did a sugar tax on fizzy pop then he would go ninja on them. As I don't drink tea and coffee I am partial to the odd can of pop but I am not having Jamie going Ninja on me so for Lent I have decided to give up fizzy pop. For the last few years I have given things up and then once I get to Easter I don't pick them up again. So could be a good thing, but let's see how we go.

With Lent comes Pancake day before it so I hope you all had some good pancakes.

The Tories seem to be wanting to give everything up and this week learnt that the Tories are giving Prisoner Governors control to run their own budget. Also Regional School Commissioners are on their way. Trust me this is a step to privatising schools. At the moment schools are under the control of local authorities unless they have become an academy. The Tories are pushing this more and more and that is one reason Standish High say they are doing this now before the Regional School Governor comes in and forces them with a school they don't want. This can't be a good thing for children's education.

On Standish High many residents have said that they have heard a Labour Cllr saying that Aspull kids will get preference treatment over children in Standish for Standish High. This Labour Cllr is Labour Cllr Hilton and I wrote to the Council about this and they have confirmed to me that this is not the case. I guess Labour will have some complaints soon as when Standish High is full from all the extra houses children the children from out of Standish will have to go elsewhere.

So after the Labour leaflet I wrote about last week we have had the Tory leaflet out. All I can say from the response people have given to me about it I hope he keeps that standard up. Monumental fail and I guess that way people are now calling him ranting Ray. Didn't take them long to suss him out.

As for some work we have been doing we are organising some more consultation on what the people of Standish want in terms of Standish High becoming an academy with a school from Chorley.

Let's see what people want with that important matter.

Many people are concerned that the Crown pub has put in a planning application to demolish it for yet more houses. I have already written to the council and called this decision before the planning committee to decide. This shouldn't be allowed to happen.
 

Should Standish High Become and Academy with Southlands High School in Chorley?

With one child attending Standish High School and another 2 to attend in future years it was a great interest to me as a parent to attend this week a meeting about the future of the school. Currently the school is under Wigan Council's control. If they go down this route they would leave that control and join with Southlands.

The head and chair of Governors blaming the Conservative Government for this change as they went on to say they were consulting on this now before the Conservative Government brought in Regional School Commissions (RSC). The school believes that if they do not do this now the RSC may in later years tell them which school to go with and that school may not be the school they want to go with.

What was interesting to me is that a High School can join in with a Primary School. Traditionally schools become an academy on their own but this is going less likely as schools are joining together and becoming a multi trust academy.

So  in the presentation it was confirmed that the schools would not be closed and a new one built but students of some subjects will travel from one site to another site for lessons. This is very bad in my opinion.

I asked why they wanted to join with a school out of Wigan Borough? They said that if St. Peters went down this route they may well go with St Maries primary school. So then why wouldn't Standish High go with Woodfold Primary School in Standish? This would be a natural partnership.

It became clear that the school is just consulting parents of children there now. My issue with this is that children of primary schools should be consulted because they are more likely to be effected by the changes. Also as a school as a local community high school I have put together a quick 5 question poll asking what your thoughts are and these results will feed into the consultation

Click here to do the poll and let us know what you think.

Labour Cllrs says Standish Children will have to go to Shevington High

In a bizarre statement Cllr Hilton is kicking off about the fact that Standish High will possibly become an Academy and he says that will stop the agreement that Wigan Council has with residents in Aspull over Standish Residents.

Labour Cllr Hilton says that when Aspull High School was closed then it was agreed that the children in Aspull wouldn't need to go to rose Bridge or another Secondary School but Standish High. He claims that this is in writing somewhere.

When asked some months ago about all the children that will move into the new houses that are coming to Standish I asked which school would the children go too? The answer was Standish but Cllr Hilton argued back saying that the Children in Aspull will have a higher ranking than the new houses and the children in the new houses will therefore have to go to Shevington High. Given that some of these houses are going around the school it is bizarre to even imagine that these children could touch Standish and then have to go to Shevington.

I have written to the Education Dept at the Council and asked if this is the case as I very much doubt it.

What will be left after all the sell outs?

The Conservatives came into power and they had one heck of a mess to sort out after Labour had spent all the money,as Labour's leaving note said. We all knew that it was going to have to be painful period but that was 6 years ago now and yet whilst it was never going to be sorted over night there seems to be no let up.

The Chancellor, George Osbourne, said that Britain is open for business. To me it now should have send Britain is up for sale! After selling the shares in the Royal Mail, Eurostar and is allowing Chinese money to build nuclear power stations. So what will be left?

Now we are looking at powers they are giving away. Police commissioners, next Fire Commissioners. Then Fire Commissioners to run Police forces and vice versa, Regional schools commissioners coming and forcing schools to go as Academy's. Now giving prison governors to control their own budgets. The Greater Manchester Health budget being controlled by local Authorities and the Northern Power House. It seems a never ending of give it away.

Schools should not be forced to do something that they don't want to. Health should be the same all over and not a good service here or a bad service there. Police Commissioners should not be allowed to run Fire Brigades. Used their experience and knowledge the best - Police.

So if this constant sell out and give away by the Tories carries on there will be nothing left for them to do. I am all for a small Government and not a nanny state but I would like us to have something left.

So here's the question once all the powers and assets have gone will the Tories get rid of all the MP's as there will be nothing for them to do?

The week that ended the.......07 Feb '16

Smokin' wow there's an election a coming, and not just in the USA as well :-) ? But we will get on to all of this in a min.

Residents Meeting that they didn't want you to know about

So Monday was Wigan Council's meeting that they didn't want people to know. It's always amazes me that, not just in Standish, any consultations, they don't want people to find out things. Anyway last week we had the deal meeting where the Council basically said they want residents to do their jobs for them for free but still want the residents to pay higher taxes, although the Council's literature says they will freeze it. Don't complain it's just another Broken promise by the council. You have to admire their consistency :-) .  The meeting was a planning questions session to planners at the Council. So they held it at 4.30 - 6.30pm so people would be at work or on their way home and won't be able to go.

I popped along and they always say a week is a long time in politics. Last week at the Deal meeting the Chief Executive said publicly getting a car park for Standish is going to be a priority for them. Interesting as one of the planners, when asked about this, said the Council will not be providing a car park for residents and they will either have to learn to walk or cycle. Failing that they will have to get used to be stuck in traffic jams and not be able to park. Also we shouldn't complain because it will mean we become like other areas. Shocking absolutely shocking. What makes it worse the so called proclaimed residents group Standish Forum, which is chaired by the Tory Candidate, has the same view. Their committee member Graham Wilcock said that residents in Standish were lazy and they agreed with the Council - no car park. Shocking. Interesting how in public these people say one thing but privately they have no, absolutely, no commitment to trying to help people. It's their view or nothing.

One resident complained that the planning applications are now only online and there are no paper copies in the Library. These are hard to read when the applications are so big and have so much details on them. They asked if the planning applications can be left in the library as a paper copy? Answer No! So much for Wigan Council listening to residents.

Standish High

It was announced that Parents of Standish High are going to be consulted on the school becoming an academy with a Southlands school in Chorley. Now as we all know from kids schools have a reputations and we carry that with us. Southlands school in Chorley was never as I remembered being a high performance school.  I am unsure if this has changed but being linked with a school in Lancashire it is clear the school wants to get away from Wigan Council's control, can't blame them, but the school will need to spell out the benefits before parents consider this. It is not only the parents now but people who have children at primary school who will be effected more.

Elections

OK so I asked at the beginning of this post is an election coming? Many will have seen the Labour leaflet they put out last week calling me. nothing new there. I always say that if you put your head above the parapet you are going to get shot. Stand on it like me and you are going to get blasted, which I don't mind. However, when Labour, or anyone else for that matter, comes and makes libelous lies about me I will not take that and nor should anyone. With that being the issue I have taken the highly unusual step of instructing my solicitors to take legal action. They have now written to the Labour candidate and she knows what she has to do. Main thing is a public apology. Will she do it? I doubt it and then we move the action to the courts for them to decide,

What makes me smile a lot is how my enemy's spend so much of their time carrying out their evil and when it fails they try something else. Like trying to get to my friends, where I hang out and which people I talk too. Even run to my employer. Every time they fail and it just winds them up more. So with that I expect them to keep going and try other things. One time they even threatened to all turn up at my house to get me. No they never did - trolls never carry out their physical threats as they have no backbone or heart. they hide behind fake names but we know who they are. One even emailed and thanked me for the work I did and then went on his twitter calling me, That's right Mr Tyrer we know who you are Guzzies old boy. School report - must try harder :-) .

Also in America they are getting ready for Presidential Elections. For the Republicans everyone wanted to know would Trump run away with their nomination in Iowa Caucus? In the end he was beat Ted Cruz beat Trump and Marco Rubio came in a close third. So that is going to be a hot fight. For the Democrats everyone just presumed that Hilary Clinton would run away with that one and no one was really talking about that fight. However, she tied with Bernie Sanders and now everyone is thinking about that fight and that will hot up too. One thing that I thought was nice to see was Bernie was speaking at an event and when a man fainted Bernie rushed over to assist. He stopped his speaking and went to help. Now how many other candidates have done that? I strongly suspect they would have carried on and then let their people assist. Bernie put that gentleman first and good on him.

Wigan Council want you to forget Don't Blame the Council

In the media Wigan Council has said that people should forget about Don't Blame the Council and move on. But things have not changed at the council and people know this. It shameful that the Council wouldn't allow an independent investigation. Also people are saying had this been a large PLC company then the Chief Executive would have been sacked. But in Wigan Council they cover up and don't face responsibilities.

 

Thank you Leigh Resident

So after my comments about the land the council sold for £1 and the blog post which I had previously written a few weeks before sent things to a crazy level. That blog post got over 2000 hits in 24 hours. Wow. That was either a lot of people reading the blog post or someone trying to do a cyber attack to stop this blog. Sounds a bit weird but trust me certain organisations don't like this blog, including Wigan Council, who have written to me and asked me to stop doing it. D'er. Why would I do that?

Anyway I would like to thank all the contact via social media, email and phone. Also I like to thank "Leigh Resident." You know who you are. I don't - but you do. You very kindly sent the paper article from the Leigh Reporter and also wrote some very kind words so thank you for the article and the kinds words. As for your ending on keep up the good work. I plan to do just that. :-)