General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Just ploughed my way through the Wigan Town Centre Strategic Regeneration Framework (56 pages) undertaken by consultants, Deloitte (HQ in New York), approved by Wigan Council 21 January 2019.

The report picks up on many of the WW posts, ie, internet shopping, that councils are the driving force, etc. Lots of grand ideas, plans and laudable aims. A good read, lots of spot-on detail and a complex set of problems faced by all towns. An extract below from David Molyneux Leader of the Council:

"Wigan Town Centre is by far the largest town centre in the borough for shopping, services and employment with over 120,000 square metres of retail floor space, over 300,000 visitors per week and supporting 10,000 jobs...........The purchase of The Galleries has meant that we have the opportunity to revitalise and redevelop Wigan Town Centre,...... In addition to this there is growing demand for more residential conversions and Wigan Town Centre has an abundance of buildings that could potentially be redeveloped to help drive forward new and original homes......This Strategic Regeneration Framework sets out our vision, plans and our ambitions to ensure the future sustainability of Wigan Town Centre"

Not sure about the 300,000 visitors per week though (suspect this is 10 visits by 30,000 people or some other permutation?). Also, "have we heard it all before" or as ausssie94 hints "in dreams".

We can expect more detail later in the year!!

Read the report here: https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Docs/PDF/Business/Economic-vision/Wigan-Town-Centre-Strategic-Regeneration-Framework-2019.pdf