Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 11th January, 2025)

Tough at the top Mick

"Mopping up after the floods, Waltham Lane, Platt Bridge."

It's Walthew Lane, Mick.

Walthew Lane!

People try to make a living and nature spoils it for them. Not every one has insurance and lives have been put into turmoil through the flooding.Now we need the post mortem to find out what caused so much flooding and to prevent it happening again

It's Walthew Lane, and it has been heartbreaking. I had to go to he doctors that morning and we were allowed through on foot past the barriers, and it was terrible to see the people in the houses opposite those shops trying to salvage things from their homes. The emergency services had worked all night, pumping water from the streets, (it was waist-high behind Iceland). However, St. Nathaniel's Church provided food and drink and people have donated food, clothes and bedding. The Taz Mahal take-away provided free food for those affected and the whole of Platt Bridge has pulled together to help. People have also donated cookers, fridges, pots and pans etc and they are being stored for free in a local storage unit until the people are able to move back home, when the volunteers will be able to assess who needs what. The Post office isn't open yet as the computers have to be "pat tested", (whatever that means), but the staff at Iceland have worked like Trojans and it has re-opened. Well done, Platt Bridge!

It's WALTHEW LANE not Waltham Lane.
There's lots of sugary junk foods in these types of shops. Some we've never heard of.

WALTHEW LANE Platt Bridge, where this junk food shop is located it used to be a car accessory shop and a good one too and very handy. Next door a really good bike shop and very helpful advice given.

It just looks a 3rd world country the shops what we endure today there scruffy and awful not like the clean and tidy shops that we used to have its a disgrace what we have to put up with today its shows us up!

You wouldn't think these types of shops do well, in just a short walking distance is Co op, Iceland and the one shop..... part of Tesco.

Peter P, the the small stream next to Lily lane turned big and burst it's banks, this flooded out Platt Bridge. That was the cause.

Agreed ex Wiganer. These shops are all over Wigan, we are inundated with poor quality shops that look like 3rd World Country's.

ex-wiganer, if people had carried on shopping at grocers' shops, butchers' shops, fishmongers' shops, greengrocers' shops etc , they would still be open. Along came Supermarkets with everything under one roof and cheaper prices due to bulk buying, and people shopped there instead. The smaller shops simply couldn't compete. I have only been in the mini-market shown above once, and I admit I don't like the windows covered with adverts, but it certainly wasn't scruffy and was clean and tidy inside and the owner was very polite. Out of sight on the photo is The Handymans Shop where you can get almost anything for jobs around the home and the helpfulness of the staff in there is second-to-none. Platt Bridge is a book that certainly shouldn't be judged by its cover.

Bet it didn’t look any different before flood. These types of shops with windows plastered with cheap posters nobody reads are a third world eye sore. It’s like they've got something to hide. Never in a million years would I step inside.

Very sad for the folk who have been flooded out. I hope they soon get back to their homes.
Floods on one side of the world and fires on the other. Every year seems to get worse.

I really feel for people who are affected by flooding, I thought Wigan had tamed the River Douglas but perhaos this was caused by something else.

I am not enamoured of garish shops like these...I know they want to use every inch of space & have probably got racks behind all those posters but it makes for a blot on the landscape.

Irene - well described. Wigan hardly featured in the national media. Does anyone know if Borsdane Brook flooded?
Here in our part of the NE little snow, hard frosts but no flooding.

Wouldn't be the first 'post mortem' PeterP. Buildings have been getting flooded there for over one hundred years. Nothing has changed (Photo of old flooded Platt Bridge on WW)
They should know by now.

Surprised the more recent builds were not put on stilts!

Btw, has that new Platt Waz burger King opened yet?

You want to look how ruff the shops are on Ince Bar.

Incer, I grew up in Ince in the 1950s and 1960s and the shops on Ince Bar were brilliant back then.....locals could get everything they needed and had no need to travel anywhere else.....butchers, grocers, shoe-shops, chemists, greengrocers, newsagents, bakers, furniture shops and electrical shops as well as two Co-ops., (in Belle Green Lane and Ince Green Lane). It is so sad to see the row of shops between The Squirrel and Pickup Street now....my Mam shopped along there every day for meat and veg, (hardly anyone had a fridge back then). Just a memory now.

You would think these garish signs over windows shouldn’t be
allowed. They stick out like sore thumbs. Makes me wonder what is hidden. Rather than attract shoppers they are put off. They drag the place down and they are all over the place these days. Especially the foreign takeaways.

Helen of Troy, Gary etc. Platt Bridge sits in the Mersey Basin catchment area, a different drainage area to Wigan. As Wigan drains into the River Ribble via the River Douglas, Platt Bridge, Ince, Hindley, Aspull etc drain into the River Mersey via Borsdane Brook / Hey Brook and River Glaze.

Yes, it was caused by the Borsdane Brook overflowing; Fire Bobby said it was blocked up by debris, most of it dumped from the local houses.

Paul's bike shop is Wigan's best, friendliest, and cheapest bike shop.

Gary yes Borsdane Brook did burst it's backs at the Crosskeys and flooded down the road at Platt Lane.
Irene most shops were lovely in the 1960s where ever you lived, but not now. They look more like junk food outlets. This is not just Wigan. It's every Town in the UK.

"Big Harold", Platt Bridge has flooded on a number of occasions through the years, and that is why those poor people who have lost everything can't get insurance on their homes. I'm sure most of us recycle our rubbish respectfully in the correct bins.....I certainly do.....and don't "dump" it anywhere. I think you will find it is Aye Brook, (also known as Hey Brook), that flows through Platt Bridge and Abram, NOT Borsdane Brook. I'm surprised the Fire Bobby didn't know that. I walk over the road bridge from Abram to Platt Bridge almost daily and have never seen any rubbish in Aye Brook below me....the water is always running free.

Always Irene Roberts you have to get a word in and you can see that it is nothing to do with what you said the princible is why do we have to have and put up with shops that look like a 3rd world country seems to me you like the look of scruffy shops!

PS. Big Harold.....how did the "Fire Bobby" KNOW where the debris had come from? How did he know it was "dumped from the local houses"? Had he witnessed it being dumped by people in the local houses? Did it have a label on saying "this old mattress has been dumped by number the family at number 12"?? IF there was debris at all, it could have been dumped anywhere along Aye/Hay Brook and been carried along by the current. I would love to know how he knew where it came from and perhaps he could join p-a-d and explain. Or is this just a dig at Platt Bridge?

Tom,, I remember a certain politician in 1981 by the name of Norman. He told folk to "get on your bike" to look for work. I don't know if Norman can still peddle at the age of 93, but during this time when most of the nations old shopkeepers have been made redundant and traditional customer service is almost dead, I find it a breath of fresh air to hear you and others sing the praises of the friendly, and no doubt helpful local lad at his bike shop.

Forget Internet spares, get down to Platt Bridge and support Paul with your custom folks.
Good luck to him after the flood and long may he continue to serve the local community.

I agree with you wholeheartedly Irene,growing up in Ince was lovely in the 50's and 60's.We didn't need to travel to shop very often as almost everything was available around Ince Bar.x

So was this Phil Skitten's car spares place ??

I can’t see the Fireman giving out ‘clues’ as to where and how the flood started. It usually takes weeks if not months to find out what and how it was caused. He wouldn’t have been very professional either telling Nozy Parker’s how it’s started.

ex-Wiganer, I only "got a word in" , which is what you did too. We are both entitled to do so. As I said, I don't like the look of those shops with adverts all over the windows any more than you do, but the owner is just trying to earn a living and it was sad to see him flooded out as it was with all the properties in Platt Bridge. I am sorry if my remark annoyed you. I watched the people bringing their good out onto the pavement as I made my way to the doctor's that morning.....both householders and shopkeepers....and it was awful, irrespective of what nationality they were. Like you, I wish we still had the old, individual shops, but sadly we are now left with shops like "Platt Bridge Mini Market", and shops dealing in Vapes, Finger-nails and Botox. If you once lived locally, I'm sure you will recall when nearby Hindley had every shop you could wish for.....Woolworths, Co-op, Iron mongers, Bike Shop.....you name it. Now it's all Vapes and Beauty Shops. Heartbreaking to those of us who remember the old days, but sadly that's how it is, everywhere. My apologies if I came across in a negative way.

Ex Wiganer I think Irene is just saying how the little local shops used to be in Ince. NOT those shops…

I think Phil Skitten's car spares became the bike shop, Gareth, and The Mini-Market used to be Platt Bridge Post Office. The Post Office is now on the end of he row, in what used to be The National Westminster Bank.

Irene I could see a old mattress and other household stuff that the Fire Bobby had pulled out.
But you're correct it could have come from the council houses upstream.

It was the same in Scholes Elizabeth. Hard to believe how much has gone in our time.

They cover the shop window so people can't see what their selling inside, ie
e cigarettes and cheap cigarettes, etc

These Europeans all dress the shop windows with pretend averting cards, it a decoy for me. There's got to be a reason for it.

Neither did we Elizabeth!

There’s only one person on here that would condemn folk who have been flooded out and blame them for what has happened. Disgraceful.
It’s happening in various places in the country and causing untold distress.. and the cause is ultimately ‘Climate Change’. Every year there’s more of it.

That first comment did not come off me even though it says John (Howfen). I go riding with Paul who has the bike shop and I’ve offered to help but he is so independent and he deserves a medal for the work he’s done helping others at that bad time.

As soon as Big Harold mentions council houses being to blame for anything you’ll know that it’s soft Mick.

So sorry Irene and veronica just to put it straight shops like those always end up in deprived areas and scruffy areas they always seem to buy them there never in posh areas or nice areas ince and platt bridge has always been scruffy i should know i come from wigan and was born there i am just staiting facts and the truth, those areas are run down enough without shops like those making it even woser.

Big Harold, there are no council houses upstream of Hay Brook. The flood wasn't caused by Borsdane Brook or Hay Brook overflowing, it was caused by the land drainage system in place not carrying the flash water volume away quick enough. A contributing factor to that is the council not sending gully-suckers round to keep the drains clear anymore. Planned preventative maintenance is important.

John Noakes you are probably wasting your breath because Big H/ Mick thinks he knows best…even though your post sounds logical.

Thankyou ex-Wiganer. And thankyou John Noakes, for putting the record straight, "Big Harold", (or his alter-ego), takes every opportunity to condemn council house tenants. There ARE bad people on Council Estates and there are good people on Council Estates, just as there are good and bad people in terraced rows and good and bad people on private estates, even in Harold's "idyllic" village on the other side of Wigan. There was NO debris and NO mattress taken from Aye Brook that day.... my husband and I spoke to the emergency workers ourselves when we asked permission to go under the barrier tapes to get to the doctor's. Any mattresses (and I saw none! ), would have come from the flooded-out homes.
The problem was the volume of relentless heavy rain which the drains couldn't take; it has happened before and will sadly probably happen again.

Veronica, yes, I've met him. As for the council's responsibility, they don't even clear the leaves up from the gutters now. These end up down the grids and, eventually, block them up. The floods will continue, no doubt.

I'm only repeating what I was told by those who were doing to clean up when I was at the scene of these disastrous floods while most of you were more than likely still in bed.

Even Shevvy has it's trash.

Yes Ince Bar shops were lovely, clean and polite, in the 50s and 60s and different. But today, the only so called shops are shacks. If you want junk food, Chicken, pizzas, burgers etc etc Ince like many is for you. Hindley Market Street in the same, it's getting a filthy hole full of junkfood shops and poor quality items. I mean, when was the last time we saw shopkeepers sweeping the pavements outside the shops and had pride in the stores....very few and far between.

I agree,Peter and Veronica,so true.