Photo-a-Day  (Thursday, 11th January, 2024)

To Kath Ha. Thanks for your post Kath,I lived in
Scholefield Lane not Hardybutts when I first met Maria in 1964 on one of the Blackpool coach trips
From Preston Road Standish.I know Maria was 17
At that time and had her 18th birthday on 1.12.64
She was working at the blind shop off Darlington St Wigan.I was very pleased to hear that she had two grown up children and still lived up Standish.
Kath what did you mean when you said your group.?
Eddie.

Well done to Wigan council for keeping our roads clean and safe during this new development of our town.

If it has twin rear tyres I hope they check for bricks/cement between the tyres. Seen many a brick in the road which have come loose from between rear tyres.

Thanks Dennis a regular scene outside the Royal Arcade.
Whatever might might be said about the demolition, the contractors always seemed to be vigilant with their cleaning.
Another nice shot of the iconic clock tower, a sheer act of vandalism if this and the market hall are demolished which could as I repeatedly say be repurposed as a major asset to the town.

Am I right in thinking the clock tower is being left and the building next to it? Remnants of the not so very old….

It's as if the planners are just trying to keep the workmen and the site looking busy so we are convinced that we're going to have a Wonderful New Modern Town; I don't think they've actually got a clue what to do next. I think things will just come to a standstill and we will be bombarded with gaudy placards telling us that "Exciting Things Are Just Around The Corner!" whilst we wait....and wait....and wait. Maybe it's the January blues and the cold and rain, and maybe things will look better and more hopeful in the Spring, but at the moment this plan is like a game of Snakes and Ladders with more snakes than ladders. I will be the first to back down on those words if I'm wrong and I hope I AM wrong. Sorry to be a pessimist but it's just my opinion to which I am entitled, as are the optimists. We can only wait and see.

Well said Irene. There’s nothing going on so why wash the wheels? The bodywork looks squeaky clean… the ground is hard…in fact it all looks very tidy for a so called building site. As for saying “well done to Wigan council for keeping our town clean during this new development of our town.” They need to get their finger out!
But that comment sounds familiar from another quarter.

Veronica, my understanding is that whole lot will be demolished once the new market is built, Crazy if you ask me!

You are right Veronica....I recognised the familiarity of the comment to which you refer right away! I would love to see our town rise like a Phoenix from the Ashes but I feel we have lost more than we will ever be able to replace. However, I hope I'm wrong about that.... and Time alone will tell.

Irene, I spoke with one of the contractors in the early stages of demolition, he was not from around here and said that in 30 years in the business he had never worked to demolish a development so modern, structurally sound and with such potential in all his experience. He was gob smacked and could not understand what the mentality of our council was to either to build it in the first place or have the imagination to find some other use.
All I could do was shake my head in agreement!

J R L Environmental are a construction company from London, https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08809475
will they be fully involved in the project or just transporting hardcore to one of their construction sites? PeterP, I've seen half a brick come loose from a wagon rear wheels and go through a car windscreen, luckily no one was hurt, though I wouldn't like a half brick travelling at 30mph to score a bullseye in the face.

Irene, there's many a true word spoken in jest, especially with those rumours going around that the council kitty is almost empty with the ever increasing costs. Those site hoarding panels could well be up for as long as those boards on Maltby's corner was.

I also spoke to one of the bosses from the demolition firm and she ( yes she was female ) told me that the place was riddled with asbestos and it was becoming more and more assardous so the only thing to do was knock the lot down and start again.

Sorry to change the subject but just sat in Wetherspoons in Ashton-under- Lyne and there is picture on the wall of Dialect Poets.
One of which is John Critchley Prince, born in Wigan 1806.
Apparently he published five volumes of highly successful poetry.
I have never heard of him, has anyone else?

Assardous??? Spellchecker can come in handy.......

Ok Julie, hazardous might be the correct spelling but I think we all understood what Sian meant.
Nice though that you took an interest.

I am not knowledgeable on the subject of asbestos, but I wouldn't have imagined that buildings built only just over 30 years ago would have asbestos in them, certainly not in a shopping precinct which would be full of people and (back then), was expected to still be standing LONG after 2024. However, I am happy to stand corrected.

PS to my last comment....my husband has worked on sites where buildings containing asbestos have been demolished, and he tells me that the whole building had to be sealed off from the public and the men who actually demolished the building were specialists and wore special clothing and breathing apparatus.....I haven't seen any of that in The Galleries. Also Wigan Council have come under such anger from the public over this wholesale demolition of perfectly good buildings that, had asbestos been found, they would have jumped at the chance to defend themselves by saying that that was the reason. They would have breathed a sigh of relief to have an excuse for what they have done. Just my opinion and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

How we cling to , so intently, so passionately, to our norm…

I thought the same Irene. I would have expected modern buildings not to have any asbestos at all. That is puzzling.

According to the sign behind the lorry, the Government has supported the Council's project through its Levelling Up scheme. So it's got to be good, surely?

Asbestos was used in Artex in the 80's so it is entirely possible there is asbestos in those buildings.

I would have thought 'levelling up ' cash could have found a better use.

How we cling to , so intently, so passionately, to our norm…

Colin , you are an absolute joy to WW!
Julie , however it’s written, whatever is claim , if it lands with you , what else do you need to know ? Be grateful you received it and have the gift to discard - someday , each of us won’t !

The assordouse asbestos was used in the walls to. Help to stop fires spreading apparently

I noticed that sign David and when I looked it up I was puzzled as Wigan was not mentioned in the list of Greater Manchester Towns to be given a share of the harvest from the Government Levelling Up Fund, Leigh Town Centre and the Spinners Mill community ownership are mentioned but no mention that I can see of this Wigan Town Centre rebuilding project.

https://gmbusinessboard.com/news/four-greater-manchester-councils-receive-levelling-up-fund-boost

The money given to renovate Haigh Hall 20,000000 is on the council website, https://www.wigan.gov.uk/News/Articles/2023/January/Levelling-Up-Fund-statement.aspx

There is a mention on here of Wigan under the Future High Streets Fund, unless that is meant, but nowhere else and not in the Levelling Up Fund listings. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/61fd3d1ee90e0768a0d0bd59/Delivering_for_all_parts_of_the_United_Kingdom_Hi-res.pdf

Though if the Levelling Up Fund is on the notices, then this town centre redevelopment must be included somewhere.

There may well be asbestos in The Market Gate part with that being built in the late 1960s to the early 1970s, but as others have said I wouldn't have thought it to have been used extensively in The Galleries with the controversy about it in the 1980s, though then again we could all be wrong because cost cutting, and making do with cheaper materials does happen in the building industry, and according to the info in the link below, it was actually still being used up to 1999.

https://www.haspod.com/blog/asbestos/when-why-asbestos-banned-uk-construction

I’ve looked the word ‘assordouse’ up but there’s no such word.
Do you mean hazardous Sian?

Assordouse ......a type of dance music popular in the 90s .

That’s good to know Poet. Whenever my two grandchildren made a mistake I used to say write it out three times then you’ll remember. I only questioned Sian the word because I thought it must be connected to Asbestos.

Colin , you are an absolute joy to WW!
Julie , however it’s written, whatever is claim , if it lands with you , what else do you need to know ? Be grateful you received it and have the gift to discard - someday , each of us won’t !

Dave we have a wonderful rich language that most other countries use as well as their own. We owe it to others to use the correct word so as not to cause confusion. I ended up looking the word up because I thought I was ‘ missing’ something. Not to be scathing to Sian. It just shows how misleading a wrong word can be. It’s bad enough with all the Americanisms that have crept into the English language which is one of the best in the world. We all make mistakes but I hate to think of standards slipping so much that the young don’t care about it. It’s not about using long pedantic words it’s just using the ordinary words of which ‘Hazard’ is. My opinion anyway.

Helen, the levelling up cash is certainly doing what it say's on the tin

What is that curly thing on top of the pole for ?

That curly thing is the hose pipe and it’s so the pipe can expand when the pole is raised up.

It's an idiot detector.