Residents' fury over Wigan path drug syringes haul

Drug paraphernalia – including up to 20 needles - has been found lying around along with unsightly amounts of litter beside the Douglas near the town centre.

And locals say that they are fed up of all the litter - ranging from cans and bottles to cigarette packets and even dog fouling - piling up.

Coun George Davies is disgusted with the situation and believed the outrage was completely justified.

He said: “It’s a popular place for people to walk down by the river, people like to walk their dogs down here.

“I feel it’s an issue that needs highlighting because it’s absolutely horrific.”

He added: “People like to come down here with cans and they drop all sorts, we’ve found needles as well, it’s becoming a dangerous place and it really needs highlighting.”

Coun Davies said that he’d asked for clean-up teams to go down to the footpath to clean up the area as he feels some action needs taking as soon as possible.

He said: “We need some anti-social behaviour signs up urgently as it really is getting out of hand.”

The clean-up team did make their way down to the scene quickly at Coun Davies’s request to clean the area and some anti-social behaviour signs are due to be added onto the lighting columns along the pathway.

There were at least 40 cans accompanying the array of needles littered about the footpath near Crompton Street that stretches 100 yards from the opening at Wigan Little Theatre, and leads up towards the Mercure Hotel.

Susan Wilson, who works at Wigan Little Theatre as a cleaner, said: “Every time we finish work here there’s always groups of people hanging around drinking and smoking.

“There’s all sorts left behind: clothes, rubbish, they’ve even been seen urinating on theatre property. It’s really dirty.”

She added: “It’s not nice at all, especially when you’re just leaving work and it’s becoming quite dangerous as well.”

Coun Davies is urging anybody who sees anything to report it immediately to the council or to the police.

George Davies is a member of the Labour Party and is a candidate to become the ward councillor for Wigan Central in the upcoming election.

He will go up against Lewis Evans (Conservative), Gareth Fairhurst (Wigan Independents) Tony Spencer (Independent) and Caroline Waddicor (Liberal Democrats).