Labour waste £41m on cycle lanes - and over £20m in Standish

We all know that cycling is good for you. Not only that but is a great hobby too. I have always been a keen cyclist since a teenager, with my friends cycling all over the place inc to the leisure Lakes in Southport and doing the Manchester to Blackpool ride a number of times. So I am not anti cyclist. 

But for some reason this labour controlled council are obsessed with cycle lanes and now we can see it is going to stupid lengths. 

In Standish many know about the council spending £1m on a small section of cycle lane that serves no purpose on Preston Rd and has cut the width of the footpath as they have put, and are, putting cycle lanes now on the footpaths. This in turn means less footpaths for those with prams and walking. 

But we can see from the pic taken from Wigan Council's website that Labour has spent £41m on cycle lanes last year, inc £20m for one from Standish to Ashton. This is wholly disproportionate! Who will cycle from Standish to Ashton, or vice versa? It is not anywhere near close enough to be good value for money.  If the council wanted to help out cyclist  then fix the many huge pot holes on the roads that can cause serious damage. That would help motorists too. Why have the Cllrs not fought to stop this wholly disproportionate amount of money being wasted? Where are they calling it out? Why do Labour hate the motorists so much? 

It is about time this labour controlled council are held to account and Standish gets a Cllt that will look after Standish and it;s resident!  

Election campaign - Behind the scenes and can you help?

Each year we get Local Elections in May. Many think it is a case of just go to the polling station cast your votes and job done. And for voters it is but for candidates that are running campaigns to win many many hours go into the whole thing to get to that day.

In fact at the end of last month (Jan) and beginning of this month (Feb) parties will choose their candidates. they will start preparing for the campaigns. what will be involved? How will they deliver the whole campaign? Who will do what?

Just think when those election leaflets come through the door that they will have had to be 

• First thought out - what are the issues? what will the content be? Which story will go where?
• Put together for the printers to then
• Print the leaflets 
• then get them out. 

There are approx. 5,000 houses in each ward, so to get them out takes time. Plus you need to get them out before you do another one. Then start all over again for the second and third, if they do a third. No easy task for any party or candidate. 

But before that they have all the paper work to fill in and complete just to get on the ballot paper and work with the Town Hall to get everything in order first.

It is quote common to parties to over stretched themselves and that is why I just stick with Standish and Shevington. 

This year both the Standish and Shevington Independents will be fighting hard campaigns to win. So can you help? Does it mean hours and hours of commitment? 

The answer to the above is no and to be fair if we had say 50 people deliver 100 leaflets - which would take about an hour - then we could do a whole ward in one hour. 

If you want to help and deliver leaflets in your street or come out with us on the days we do them please get in touch and we can then include in the preparations and together we can beat Labour.