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I note that they say the rules need to be changed as the rules are out of date.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