Sponsored by
Wigan crime hotspots revealed
College Avenue, Wigan
YOU are more likely to get beaten or mugged in this alleway than anywhere else in Wigan.
That is one of the revelations of a new crime map, which identifies offence hot spots in and around town centres the length of the country.
And College Avenue, off the bottom of King Street, is identified as the worst. In December alone, there were 39 offences committed in and around there, 18 of them violence-related.
In December 2011 alone police recorded 418 incidents in and around the town centre nightclubs, parks and shopping centres as the main focal points.
Worryingly the second highest type of incident was violence, topped only by anti-social behaviour, of which there were 133 reported offences.
The rate of violent crimes rocketed by 47 per cent in just one month from 40 in November to 59 in December, the government’s updated crime mapping website shows.
The two worst places were detailed as the area around College Avenue, just off the bottom of King Street, and the area around Clarence Yard, behind King Street West and Wallgate.
Between them 31 violent crimes were reported, most of which were recorded as happening “on or near a nightclub.”
Crimes in these two areas account for virtually half of all the violent crimes that happened in the town last December.
And they were the scene of other crimes as well as violence too, including anti-social behaviour, public disorder and weapons offences, which are anything that could cause fear, alarm or distress or the possession of a weapon such as a firearm.
In total there were 43 offences recorded in the College Avenue area and 27 on Clarence Yard.
Although the number of anti-social offences were nearly double the violent crime rates the incidents were spread more evenly across the town centre, which on the map takes in parts of Scholes, Ince, Mesnes Park and Gidlow.
The third most prevalent offence in the town centre was theft with 55 incidents listed followed closely by shoplifting, of which there were 45 offences logged by police. More than half of these were committed around shopping centres in the town centre. There was just six drug offences and four robberies recorded during the month.
Another high crime category was criminal damage and arson, which again was spread evenly across the whole of the town centre area.
When compared to the rest of the borough Wigan was way ahead of neighbouring areas including Leigh, Pemberton (pictured left), Ince and Scholes.
Leigh had the second highest crime rates in December with 349 offences committed overall.
And of those 33 were violence-related, 123 were incidents of anti-social behaviour and 37 were for shoplifting.
In Pemberton 218 offences were committed overall and the most prevaent crime area was that of anti-social behaviour. Only 19 violent offences were committed.
Ince and Scholes combined saw 101 offences reported and Orrell had one of the lowest rates of violent crime, seeing just five.
The map does not detail exactly where an incident happened, instead listing an anonymous point on or near to the road in question.
SEE TODAY’S (THURSDAY) WIGAN EVENING POST FOR MORE ...
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Wigan
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 27 comments to this article
Page 1 of 2
Red Door Bistro
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 02:19 AMpost 22 - 25........HERE HERE !!!!!!!
Red Door Bistro
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 02:14 AMI hope you do take the time to come down and see us where you will recieve a warm welcome everytime. Also, re the last comment. Your right no publicity is bad publicity and on that note I am sure Elaine Stewart and everyone at The Red Door can turn this into something possitive.
Dilbert
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 01:16 PMRed Door Bistro, don't knock this story too much - I had no idea you were there until now. No publicity is bad publicity! :-)
ES Hair and Beauty
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 08:40 PM“The map does not detail exactly where an incident happened, instead listing an anonymous point on or near to the road in question.” This is the last line of the article which statistics show that over 80% of people reading the article will not get to. What it clearly shows are two Wigan businesses; Elaine Stewart Hair & Beauty and The Red Door Bistro . Many readers will put two and two together get a huge number and assume that crime is rife in and around our businesses. This is far from the truth. In seven years of being in College Ave we have only had two minor thefts . We’re proud to be a local business, with Wigan roots (pardon the hairdressing pun ), Wigan employees and Wigan customers. We work hard in the community to develop and maintain or local connections We’ll more than welcome any one from WIgantoday.net who wants to visit us and talk to us about our business, our environment, the crime we’ve seen before publishing anonymous photos. We all know that statistics can be used to prove many things. Please do not let this photo deter you from visiting us
Carolyn W
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 07:01 PMPost 22. Coppull, you beat me to it. I completely agree with your comments on the total lack of sensitivity that has been shown here for both of the businesses on College Avenue ; The Red Door Bistro and Elaine Stewart Hair & Beauty. They are both local endeavours and deserve support. Remember what that building was like for many years, how derilict and neglected it was before it was opened as a business by Elaine Stewart Hair & Beauty. Wigan Today should be promoting and supporting these local businesses not making them the centre of this adverse publicity. I guess that they did not consult with them before printing the photograph. In my opinion it is lazy journalism Wigan Today offer at least an aplogy to them , if not some free publicity. To both busiensses I hope that you can bounce back from this
Coppull
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 11:49 AMPost 17, Whilst i wouldn't think this article is concrete libelious, I'd be most annoyed at the lack of sensitivity if this were my business plastered on the internet like this. I can read your business name. It hasn't even been airbrushed out which isn't hard to do. On a positive note, it's perhaps good advertising too as i never knew the place existed and it looks like the sort of place i'd like to pop in to and may well even visit, directly as a consequence of this 'article'.
Maverick 69
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 10:17 AMPost 3 and 9, easy move back to your liverpool slums - Simples:-)
Ray Ashton
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 09:24 AMThis does not say much for the thousands of pounds spent of town centre CCTV in previous years. Makes me wonder if the cameras are ever switched on and are the operators watching the screens 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year? If not then they may as well be taken down. And where is Plod booking motorists no doubt.
Dibbs
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 06:09 PMSuch is my confidence that I will not get mugged on College Avenue I will endeavor to visit Red Door Bistro in the coming weeks and I'll order a portion of tripe for the author of this tripe story.
painter
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 05:38 PMI am and have been a regular at the Red Door Bistro for some time and I can honestly say that neither my wife or me have EVER witnessed a problem in this alleyway. Only one place for this rag paper and that is on the fire!
Red Door Bistro
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 04:59 PMThankyou for your comment. I think the worst thing about the writeup is the opening line ...YOU are more likely to get beaten or mugged in this alleway than anywhere else in Wigan.. This seems to come across as FACT !!
working for EU and IMF Greece needs all our cash
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 04:52 PMif the crime is so bad in these two town center hot spots ? the council can gate them off completely at night, hardly make any difference to passing traffic or use stronger lighting in a cheaper option. and the parish church yard including gardens should be gated and locked at night the amount of rapes and drug taking been done around that area as well over the years. if you force pedestrians to only have access to well lit areas with a broad view of it's surroundings that would limit the amount off assaults
Dibbs
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 04:15 PMJayne at red door bistro. I feel for you. Your quite right it is very unfair to suggest you are likely to get mugged on college Avenue. This is lazy journalism. A mugging which to give it is proper title a Robbery ie to assault someone in order to steal very rarely occurs in Wigan. A simple freedom of information request will show zero robberies (mugging) on college avenue I guarantee. As I point out in my last comment and in answer to your obvious bewilderment Why if the cops are there do so many offences take place ? It's because the police are there to discover them first hand ie witness them occurring in front of them. People tend not to report having a scrap the next day hence no record but as the cops are on hand then more crimes get recorded. Again a simple FOI request could determine what proportion of offences were discovered by police. These will usually take the form of abusive or threatening behavior which gets recorded as violent crime even though no violence is used.
Trelawney
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 04:08 PMPost 6 .As Wigan born and bred, I know where I feel safer on a Saturday night, if it is between Liverpool and Wigan. Put it this way the answer does not begin with "W".
ritchy
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 03:30 PMpost 9 your not bitter using that as your name , whats up not being famous anymore wind you up . without killing anyone we won it 3 times
Page 1 of 2
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.