So a petition has been doing the rounds calling for all the shops to be closed for Boxing day. I think I have read that it was to give Rail Workers a day off. They have had enough on strikes...lol.
However, as far as I can remember - i'm in my mid 40's now - boxing day was always a shopping day and also we have a threat - the internet! More and more shops keep closing due to the likes of Amazon and other online retailers so closing for a busy retail shop like Boxing day would hit them hard.
But, there is a strong argument - and one I support to a large degree - that there needs to be family time and I feel Sunday trading should be only allowed for small corner shops and the shopping centre like meadow hall and Trafford Centre. That way there will be more family time because I do believe that families are being hurt by a 24/7 / 365 time. In years gone by you worked at saturday it was time and half. You work Sunday it was double time. I agree with those too because if someone is giving up family time which is very precious then it needs to be rewarded but then if these old style pay deals were back in then there would be less business opening on a Sunday. Now Saturday and Sunday are classed just like and equal as a Monday or Tuesday. No they are not kids are off school at weekends.
Back to special days shutting the shops I believe rather than close for Boxing day shops should be closed on New Years day. I always thought that there were 3 days shops had to be closed New Years day, Easter Sunday and Christmas day.
Here is a link for the petition if you agree but for me I would swap it to New years day.
Tuesday, 20 November 2018
Friday, 16 November 2018
Inconsiderate Bar Stools ???
So from the headlines I have toned down the language and changed a word to bar stools but I think you all know what I mean.
One thing that has always, and still does, is inconsiderate bar stools that park and block pavements completely so people with prams or people in wheelchairs cannot pass on the path and have to go into the road.
Whilst many may have parked with a wheel on the kerb - few completely block the footpath. And those that do should be named and shamed. I am unclear if it is the Police or the Council that enforce the policy whereby it is now an offence if a pram or wheelchair cannot pass on the footpath. I believe it is in Tameside - which is in Greater Manchester - who are giving people like the one in the picture tickets, and so they should.
However, this picture was taken today (16/11/2018) at 5pm when they were walking their 4 month old daughter down Adelphi Street in Standish. And when we look we can clearly see the number plate so the employers can see it and find the driver and also it is a van for a contractor that does Wigan and Leigh housing. So what does Wigan Council think to their contractors doing this and endangering lives?
One thing that has always, and still does, is inconsiderate bar stools that park and block pavements completely so people with prams or people in wheelchairs cannot pass on the path and have to go into the road.
Whilst many may have parked with a wheel on the kerb - few completely block the footpath. And those that do should be named and shamed. I am unclear if it is the Police or the Council that enforce the policy whereby it is now an offence if a pram or wheelchair cannot pass on the footpath. I believe it is in Tameside - which is in Greater Manchester - who are giving people like the one in the picture tickets, and so they should.
However, this picture was taken today (16/11/2018) at 5pm when they were walking their 4 month old daughter down Adelphi Street in Standish. And when we look we can clearly see the number plate so the employers can see it and find the driver and also it is a van for a contractor that does Wigan and Leigh housing. So what does Wigan Council think to their contractors doing this and endangering lives?
Sunday, 11 November 2018
Chadwicks to Leave Standish and retirement village to come in its place
So there are mixed emotions online from people and will a retirement village not be good for Standish? Every person will have their own view. It wasn't long ago they got planning permission for a supermarket on the site. That obviously has gone out the window but a retirement village next to a pub which is a negative but close the centre is a positive.
So I looked further into the company that wants to do the retirement village and what I will ay any old folk out there don't be getting too excited. Here is a link to another of their sites in Preston. £185,000 for a 1 bedroom apartment and £260,000 for a 2 bedroom apartment. Now just because these are the prices in Preston doesn't mean that this will be the price in Standish - they could be more or less but it is a good indicated and wow you could buy a house for that or a bungalow, although not many of them around granted.
I am not sure what you think but certainly on the high end and I doubt many pensioners would be able to afford these kind of prices.
Stupid or Great? Update with Cllr Steve Jones Vs Wigan Council and Donna Hall
As with any legal case there are protocols and procedures to go through. So when, as you will know, have served legal papers against Donna Hall and Wigan Council. This was due to the fact that in the illegal by election whereby Donna Hall tried to sack a duly elected member of Wigan Council - Cllr Steve Jones after she, nor Wigan Council have said sorry to him for what they did to him. As mentioned before they have even blamed the judge for meddling and removing democracy. Shocking!
So after 9 months they have failed to apologise and/ or try to improve things. One of the conditions we said was that the Council and their staff stop harassing Cllr Steve Jones. They refused!
So Steve had no choice but to put in legal papers to go before a High Court Judge on the Queens Bench. When I say we, I mean Steve and myself as I am his McKenzie Friend - legal terminology for a friend helping with the legal case and supporting the claimant.
When legal papers go in the defendants, in this case, Donna Hall and Wigan Council, failed to respond before the deadline. So this week I went back into the High Court on Steve's behalf to ask the Judge now to give judgement against both Donna Hall and Wigan Council. We have been told this would have happened at the end of this week or beginning of next week. Can you believe that Wigan Council missed the deadline? Stupid or Great strategy? More on this in a bit. I mean they have their own legal team and dept and they miss a simple thing like a deadline.
After the deadline Wigan Council and Donna Hall got a newly appointed London Solicitor to ask for more time. Not like they have not had enough in 9 months and several letters including summons, now they want more time. The time requested is saying they need more time to see if they want to defend it. They haven't even made their minds up. Wow!
So the courts have told us what will happen is the judgement will happen and then it will go back before the judge and he will decide whether the judgement stands or if he wants to set it aside/ defer it.If the judgement stand then Wigan Council and Donna Hall will have to pay it. If the judge decides to set it aside then they will wait for their defence - if one comes in again before the deadline. Then a date will be set for the court case.
At the court case everything will come out about what they did to Steve and trust me the public doesn't know the half of it. I know on the Facebook page - Wigan Council What are you doing to our Town? people are saying the police are also corrupt and complicit in this. I am not sure if it is true that ALL GMP can called be corrupt but one thing we found out yesterday is that we can prove that there is corrupt officer(s) in GMP pulling favours for Donna Hall and Wigan Council. Once this evidence is presented - along with the vast amount of other evidences I am pretty sure the head guys at GMP will want to look further at the this. We will also looking to go for a private prosecution against Donna Hall for misuse of power in public office. We can easily evidence this now with all this evidence.
But more on the title now Stupid or Great Strategy because as Steve said if Wigan Council and Donna Hall missed the deadline on purpose and the judge decides that he will not set aside the judgement and it stands guess what happens ALL this evidence will not come out in the court case and they can blame an admin failure etc. If that was their idea then it could be a good strategy from them to try and keep the lid on all of this. If it wasn't then they were stupid for missing a very important deadline.
We also understand that Donna Hall has had to inform the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council missing the deadline and judgement could just now go against them. Deputy Leader Keith Cunliffe is telling people that if this happens he will make sure that Donna pays the bill for her failings. Mind you he has even said go and get her. As I have written before it seems he doesn't like her more than most especially when they had a big argument in MAnchester when Donna called herself the Leader of Wigan Council only for the Deputy Leader to stand up in front of every one there and say no you are not. You are the Chief Executive and Cllr David Molyneux is the Leader. On David when I spoke with him about the matter and I said about we were about to issue legal papers he said Gareth do what you need to do on this one.
We will know more on which way the judge wants to go on this either let the judgement stand or set it aside and this will be later next week or the early part of the week after, but we will keep you informed.
Thursday, 8 November 2018
This shows how incompetent Northern Rail is
So on Monday 5 November 2018, there was a broken rail in the Manchester Area and this created massive logistical problems for Northern Rail, they say.
So if the unexpected happens we would all appreciate that there would have to be some work around but below is just one example of how stupidly incompetent Northern Rail are.
So the 06.40 from Appley Bridge to Manchester had 4 carriages and was about 25 Minute late. They then tell due to this broken rail this 4 carriage train will terminate at Wigan Wallgate. Ahhh we all think. We are then informed that when we get to Wigan Wallgate there is another train that will take us into Manchester. With using Northern Rail for years I have come to expect Northern Rail tell you anything knowing that they will hopefully never see you again. So we pull into Wigan Wallgate and all the people on the 4 Train Carriage have to get off and then wait with all the other people on the platform that were hopefully going to use our train. That train is then sent back down the Southport line. We then have to wait for 20 minutes or so and then the the next train in is a 2 Carriage Train which was the the train behind the 4 carriage train on the Southport Line.
So now all the people that were on the previous 4 carriage train along with those already on the platform when the previous 4 carriage train had pulled in have to board the 2 carriage train. Impossible! You guess it we then left people behind at Wigan Wallgate and every station thereafter.
But here is the thing. If Northern had to do a work around why not let the first train which was a 4 Train Carriage wait at Wigan Wallgate for the 2 Train which is the 2 carriage train that we all had to wait for anyway at Wigan and then ask all the people on the 2 carriage train to get off and board the 4 carriage train waiting at the Station? Then send the 2 carriage train back down the line to Southport. That way they would have had double capacity and not leaving as many people on the way to Manchester.
Is it me or is that too simple for these idiots that are running our train service/? Either way the train service is getting worse by the day in both directions with me reading that Northern had put out an announcement to people on a train from Salford to Manchester that the train had been cancelled. They were on the train already, how could it be cancelled?
Yesterday I took a picture of the massive overcrowding and then when the train got into Bolton Northern Staff were shouting to people to move down and let people on. The picture is below. How could anyone move? Where is the space for people to get on to? People are already jammed at the doors and when they were about to leave at Bolton passengers had one foot on the platform one on the train so the train couldn't depart and passengers on the train shouting at them to get off the train because they would be late. Only for the people with one foot on and one foot off shouting back you don't want to be late but it is OK for me to be left at this train station and then late. It will not be long now before there are incidents at Stations or on trains and all this is because of the incompetent of Northern Rail.
There is no accountability with politicians blaming each other and train companies just say, Sorry. |They should be stripped of the franchise if they cannot run a even a basic service so come on Tory Government strip Northern Rail off the franchise.
Labour say they would nationalise the railways but do not say how this would make the service better. All the while us passengers have to suffer twice daily and pay for the privilege.
So if the unexpected happens we would all appreciate that there would have to be some work around but below is just one example of how stupidly incompetent Northern Rail are.
So the 06.40 from Appley Bridge to Manchester had 4 carriages and was about 25 Minute late. They then tell due to this broken rail this 4 carriage train will terminate at Wigan Wallgate. Ahhh we all think. We are then informed that when we get to Wigan Wallgate there is another train that will take us into Manchester. With using Northern Rail for years I have come to expect Northern Rail tell you anything knowing that they will hopefully never see you again. So we pull into Wigan Wallgate and all the people on the 4 Train Carriage have to get off and then wait with all the other people on the platform that were hopefully going to use our train. That train is then sent back down the Southport line. We then have to wait for 20 minutes or so and then the the next train in is a 2 Carriage Train which was the the train behind the 4 carriage train on the Southport Line.
So now all the people that were on the previous 4 carriage train along with those already on the platform when the previous 4 carriage train had pulled in have to board the 2 carriage train. Impossible! You guess it we then left people behind at Wigan Wallgate and every station thereafter.
But here is the thing. If Northern had to do a work around why not let the first train which was a 4 Train Carriage wait at Wigan Wallgate for the 2 Train which is the 2 carriage train that we all had to wait for anyway at Wigan and then ask all the people on the 2 carriage train to get off and board the 4 carriage train waiting at the Station? Then send the 2 carriage train back down the line to Southport. That way they would have had double capacity and not leaving as many people on the way to Manchester.
Is it me or is that too simple for these idiots that are running our train service/? Either way the train service is getting worse by the day in both directions with me reading that Northern had put out an announcement to people on a train from Salford to Manchester that the train had been cancelled. They were on the train already, how could it be cancelled?
Yesterday I took a picture of the massive overcrowding and then when the train got into Bolton Northern Staff were shouting to people to move down and let people on. The picture is below. How could anyone move? Where is the space for people to get on to? People are already jammed at the doors and when they were about to leave at Bolton passengers had one foot on the platform one on the train so the train couldn't depart and passengers on the train shouting at them to get off the train because they would be late. Only for the people with one foot on and one foot off shouting back you don't want to be late but it is OK for me to be left at this train station and then late. It will not be long now before there are incidents at Stations or on trains and all this is because of the incompetent of Northern Rail.
 |
| Where is the gap for any more people to get on when Northern Rail Staff are shouting at passengers to move down. ! question where too? |
There is no accountability with politicians blaming each other and train companies just say, Sorry. |They should be stripped of the franchise if they cannot run a even a basic service so come on Tory Government strip Northern Rail off the franchise.
Labour say they would nationalise the railways but do not say how this would make the service better. All the while us passengers have to suffer twice daily and pay for the privilege.
Monday, 5 November 2018
The Country is going mad - what's going on with our Police?
So I have heard about a 70 Year old lady who was at the Police station at the weekend and she used her horn at someone else - who was delaying unnecessarily and then the other person went inside to the petrol station and asked for the police as they wanted to report a "HATE CRIME". Then the police CAME arrested the 70 year lady and then questioned her under caution for this "so called hate crime".
Yet on Friday yet another teenagaer was stabbed to death in London and to date no action or arrests have been made. And whilst yes I agree the Tories have cut the Police to dangerous levels the Police - for me - cannot complain when they are arresting 70 year old ladies for pipping her horn. Really? Have a word!
Now we know of an alleged hate crime in Wigan that I would imagine is costing close to a million quid now and questions need to ask if this is a hate crime at all? Or is it someone using their mates to pull a favour on bogus "fake" hate crime. Surely the Police have better things to do. Again whilst true hate crimes should be investigated and looked at things have to be put into proportion and ask if so much resource on a fictitious crime, in my eyes, should get so much resources at it? I guess on this one all will become clear when someone is ever charged and a court hearing is in place when I am sure ALL will come out and a jury will decide. If this doesn't happen and no one is ever charged, after all the arrests that we have heard about, then questions need to be asked again on whether it was a true crime or was someone wasting police time? Just a thought!
Yet on Friday yet another teenagaer was stabbed to death in London and to date no action or arrests have been made. And whilst yes I agree the Tories have cut the Police to dangerous levels the Police - for me - cannot complain when they are arresting 70 year old ladies for pipping her horn. Really? Have a word!
Now we know of an alleged hate crime in Wigan that I would imagine is costing close to a million quid now and questions need to ask if this is a hate crime at all? Or is it someone using their mates to pull a favour on bogus "fake" hate crime. Surely the Police have better things to do. Again whilst true hate crimes should be investigated and looked at things have to be put into proportion and ask if so much resource on a fictitious crime, in my eyes, should get so much resources at it? I guess on this one all will become clear when someone is ever charged and a court hearing is in place when I am sure ALL will come out and a jury will decide. If this doesn't happen and no one is ever charged, after all the arrests that we have heard about, then questions need to be asked again on whether it was a true crime or was someone wasting police time? Just a thought!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)