The large bend on Gerard Street

Walking down Gerard Street recently I couldn't help notice the new road layout in front of Boardman's shop. I was surprised at how far the new pavement encroached into the road. I was concerned that it would be difficult for two large vehicles to pass each other - especially as this was a new road layout and motorists would not be used to it. So a couple of days ago I expressed my concerns to Wigan Council and I am glad to see the following measure are being taken. The contractors are going to:

1) immediately pull the new kerb-line back 0.5m to provide a wider margin for error. This will provide more than sufficient room for two buses / HGVs to pass unimpeded.

2) immediately re-paint the centre line into its new position - following site visits, it was felt that the existing centre line may be a contributory factor to drivers getting their positioning wrong with relation to the new built-out.

3) install further bollards at the start of the build-out to visually guide vehicles around the corner and prevent them from mounting of the footway.

4) install advance warning signs - temporary 'new road layout ahead' and 'narrow road ahead' warning signs.

Where have the green bins gone?

When a resident of Queen's Avenue made an enquiry to me he mentioned that the houses of Queen's Avenue had never been supplied with green bins. I subsequently made an enquiry to the Council and found that there had been an oversight - the street should have green bins.

Now I have informed the residents by letter of this fact and they should be able to re-cycle their green waste from now on.

Not karaoke

Sunday morning I attended the Mayor's parade through Winstanley to St Paul's church. I have known Rona for many years now and I wish her well for the coming year.

Her charity is called Rainbow and aims to upgrade children's facilities in our local hospital. If any reader would like to know more details or would like to organise an event for this charity please contact me.

Karaoke competition

I was asked by a local pub the Kings Arms to judge a karaoke competition on Saturday night which I agreed to do - you've got to try anything once.

I thought that I would have to listen to the singers and then just give them marks. But no. The whole evening was very professionally organised.It was set out like X factor. There were three judges of which I was one, a representative from the brewery and a Kylie Minogue look a like ( see photo) who was a professional singer. There were 6 competitors each of whom had two songs to sing. and then each judge had to give his/her opinion in front of the contestant and the whole pub - just like X factor. At first this was very nerve wracking but gradually we all got into to it. Interestingly enough the Simon Cowell of the group was Kylie - me and the other guy were far too nice to rip into the singers when they were standing in front of us.

When I heard karaoke I expected to hear some very ropey singers - but I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone of them could sing well and it was very difficult to pick a winner.

In the end after a sing off we chose two winners who are now going to Birmingham for the national finals. I wish them all the best and if they happen to read this please contact me I would like photos of them for the blog

And thanks to Lynn,the landlady for a splendid evening.

Ashton Forward- Action not words

Together with Ian McCartney we launched our campaign last Wednesday in Ashton town centre which aims to revive the town centre.

Part of the campaign is a petition calling on residents to support a new vision for the town centre. Ian has already obtained support from various groups including Wigan Metro, Wigan and Leigh Primary Care Trust the Greater Manchester Ambulance Service and police and Wigan and Leigh college. He intends to engage them in a comprehensive investment and regeneration strategy to provide modern public services in 21st century state of the art facilities.

The campaign has just received a major boost from a commitment by Steven Broomhead, chief executive of the North West Development Agency to pledge £50,00 to fund a comprehensive study to identify options for the future of the town centre hub. Ian hopes that this sum can be used to secure millions of pounds of investment in the future

Please contact me if you want to support the Ashton Forward campaign.

Getting out into the community

As Chair of the Ashton Bryn township Forum I have always been concerned that this important group meets in the Members Room of the town hall but does not reach out to the community of Ashton or Bryn

With this in mind we held a completely different meeting on Monday night . Our theme was Youth and we invited speakers from various organisations to attend the meeting to tell us what their role was in relationship to young people and more importantly how the Township Forum could help these groups and organisations. We invited representatives from the Youth Service, the Rock FM media bus, Connexions, staff and pupils from Byrchall High School where the event was held school and give presentations to members of the Township Forum and other guests.

The aim of the evening was for members of our group to understand what the various agencies and young people were doing in the community and then to ask them what we could do for them.

The event was a success - so much so that we have been asked to repeat it later in the year with additional speakers form the police and Leisure and Culture Trust. We aim to do this event for pupils and parents of local schools. We will also be inviting young people's representatives to our next forum meeting.

The pictures ( sorry they are not better quality)are of the speakers from the various organisations giving their presentations.

Thanks are due to the young people who made the buffet for us and Malcolm Coe and Lynn Hankey who did much of the organisation to make the event a success

And now for something completely different

I took this picture of a field of rape seed near Haydock Park - which I thought was nice.