Wigan Independent Group grows

It is with great pleasure that the Wigan Independents are pleased to announce that the party is growing and so is the Cllr group on Wigan Council. 

Cllr Steve Jones and Cllr Bob Brierley have now joined the group and party. The group will be known on Wigan Council as the Wigan Independents, whilst they all are memebrs of their ward branches in terms of Party.

Cllr Debbie and George Fairhurst are still Standish Independents

Cllr Steve Jones - Bryn Independents

Cllr Bob Brierley - Hindley Green Independents.

The new additional members will demonstrate the core values of all four Cllrs that they first represent the people in their Wards, and then Wigan Council Chamber

Cllr Steve Jones said, "We wanted to join an effective opposition in the Council Chamber. I also wanted to be truly independent of any national political party, and with prominent Independent Network favouring a coalition with the Tories, I knew the people of Bryn wouldn't want me to do this. I would like to wish Independent Network all the best but the first and important thing for me to do is represent the people of Bryn."

Cllr Bob Brierley added, "For me, I wanted to come together with a group of people that I trust, and also to join with people that fight for the people that we represent and get a better Deal for them!"  

Cllr George Fairhurst said, " With the new addition I am confident that collectively we will work better, smarter and more importantly keep the people of Wigan first."

In another ground breaking development, Wigan political scene has it's first Female Political Leader in Cllr Debbie Fairhurst. Never before has a female led a group of Cllrs on Wigan Council, and this demonstrates that the party and group represent everyone.

Cllr George Fairhurst added, "I believe that Debbie will be an excellent leader of our group on the council. In all her years as a Cllr, she is keen to listen to all and work through issues to get the best outcome for the people of Standish and Wigan.

New leader group leader Cllr Debbie Fairhurst said, "I was humbled that Cllr George Fairhurst proposed me as the new leader, and I got the full backing of all the other Cllrs in the group. As Leader, I want a good debate where the things that matter to the people of Wigan get debated. I promise to represent the values of the Party and Group."  

The necessary paper work for the new group has now been completed and submitted to Wigan Council. 

Devo Manc is costing us already

So all the Labour, inc Wigan Leader peter Smith, in Greater Manchester and also the single Tory Leader all said that Devo Manc would be a great thing for us in Manchester and Wigan.

So Labour have taken control of Health and social Care from 1st April of last Yr. It used to be the case that if you need a GP out of hours that they was a facility where you could ring and if required then attend in Ince. However, residents have been complaining that this has gone. And whilst the service may be there people are not able to access it. There is no phone number published and you cannot ring directly. Now you have to ring 111 and then they will deal with you and a lot of times they direct you to A&E, which as we know is already overstretched.

So when questioned and scrutinised at a recent committee meeting Labour where on the back foot and said they will look into the matter. How long will that take? How long will residents have to cope with with little or no service. Labour are already making a mess of local services but also now taking control of major services and cutting and making them a mess.

In fact up until Cllr debbie Fairhurst, Standish Independents Cllr raised this it was all kept quiet.

New Yr but same dodgy activities from Labour Cllrs

So we are no back in the swing of things and the Shevington Independents battled to stop more dodgy deals happening.

At this weeks Council meeting a document (See Below) was circulated. In this document you can see that Cllr Bill McKnight met with his boss to discuss giving them a contract worth tens of thousands of pounds. When will these dodgy Cllr learn? Any contract where public money is being discussed or used has to go through the correct process of tender. you simply cannot have meetings with your boss and talk about contracts.

Excellent work by the Shevington Independents that yet again demonstrate that they are fighting for value of money and not simply wanting to hand over cosy deals to their friends and employers. Also they have demonstrated that they are the only ones fighting for the people of Shevington

Below is a picture of Bill McKnight that has brought more shame on the Parish Council. If you click here you can see a copy of his interest whereby it is clearly marked that his employers are NPS.

Shame on you Bill think of yourself again and not the people of Shevington!