Wigan businesses slowly emerge from lockdown

With the exception of Leicester, places that have been deserted for months – the schools, the shops, the cafe s and restaurants – are cautiously welcoming people back.

The easing of lockdown has caused considerable anxiety. Some feel it is too soon for the restrictions to be lifted, and fears of a second wave have been raised.

But as we prepare for more measures to be reduced from Saturday, there are plenty of positives to take from the steps that have been taken so far.

The high street has been restored after becoming a ghost town during the lockdown. The Galleries and Grand Arcade shopping centres both fully reopened earlier this month, and the former reported more than 50,000 people visited in the first week that non-essential stores were allowed to end their imposed hibernation.

Bosses expressed delight at the numbers, saying they were better than expected.

Simon Tucker, The Galleries centre manager, said: “We’re really pleased that people are coming back to the shopping centre. It was a nervous first morning trying to anticipate how the public would feel about shopping following the lockdown, but we were pleasantly surprised.”

John Sanson, centre manager for the Grand Arcade, said they had seen similar figures.

He said: “We were at about 47,900. We’re quite pleased with that. It’s about two thirds to one half of what we normally have, but I think there’s still a lot of people not coming out, and obviously we’ve got the one way system and queues that mean we’re not going to see as many people as we normally would.”

He added: “It was good to see everybody back, and just to see the staff and tenants as well as the shoppers.”

Non-essential businesses such as pubs, restaurants and hair salons are also on the cusp of reopening, on July 4. Business owners have been implementing social distancing rules and safety measures ahead of their grand reopenings, including installing screens and face masks, one way systems and plenty of hand sanitising facilities. And there will even be some new venues for people to sample.

Popular watering hole The Crown, in Worthington, was due to reopen for the first time in four years, before the lockdown was introduced. The big day was put on ice, but is now ready to welcome back punters.

Standish will also boast a new venue from next week, with the anticipated opening of Asylum.

More positive signs for the local economy came this week with the news that Aldi has earmarked several locations for new outlets across the borough. The UK’s fifth largest supermarket has been on an expansion drive in recent years as it targets having 1,200 stores open by 2025.

Areas it has its sights on include Ashton, Shevington Vale, Orrell and North Wigan.

The retail scene isn’t the only industry to have seen an impressive bounce back - the borough’s housing market is leading a resurgence in buyer demand.

Property website Rightmove based its findings on the volumes of house hunters phoning and emailing estate agents about properties for sale in the first two weeks of June, compared with before the lockdown in the first two weeks in March.

The housing market in England started to reopen from May 13, with serious buyers now able to undertake physical viewings once more.

In that time, Wigan has seen a 71% uplift in searches for properties, according to Rightmove, just six per cent less than the highest UK rise, which was in Hereford (77 per cent).

Schools have also safely welcomed more students back into the classrooms, with many children

One, the Deanery High School was delighted to reveal that 80 per cent of year 10 pupils returned to class in Frog Lane last week.

On its social media channels, the school said: “Pupils have spoken to their friends about how purposeful the sessions are, how safe it is and how good it is to see their friends and teachers again.

“Pupils have returned looking smart and being positive, and it has been great to see them back.”