Tony Porter Ponders: Haigh disappointment, Halloween Budget, party in a brewery

After the excitement and the huge amount of good news on the progress being made in various Wigans redevelopments I thought I would have a wander up to Haigh Hall to see it without its scaffolding after finishing work on Sunday. Except when I got there it was still shrouded in mystery and scaffolding, I was very disappointed, so let me know if/when you see it start to be revealed in all its glory. That said, despite the first named storm of the season rustling the trees around me, I did enjoy a stroll through the plantation woods seeing it in full autumnal colours.

I was somewhat surprised to see works going on on the Whelly Loop old railway path, I did walk along it from the canal in Ince in the summer and it turned into a mud bath after Whelly, It, if the rumours are true, is being made into a cycle lane and footpath, I know many will say we have more cycle lanes than we need just in Saddle Junction alone, but I think that using tracks like this is better all round, for families on walks to actual cyclists, keeping the latter off the roads and away from pollution, my main fear is that it will soon be taken over by anti-social youth on quad bikes and questionable motorcycles, so as long as there are safeguards regarding that, I feel that this could be very positive for the area.

We have been told to brace ourselves for a bad budget coming next week, Halloween week by coincidence. Before the election I said what I would do if I was PM, I got some interesting reactions, but I would still be more popular than the gruesome twosome, Halloween joke, in Downing Street. This ‘Black Hole’ is getting bigger and bigger, it needs filling, but you can never fill a black hole, that’s kind of how they exist.

In London the Underground workers have voted to strike over pay, the issue with that is that they will expect a huge pay rise because of the settlement they saw the Junior Doctors get and the whopper pay rise for train drivers too, you cant just keep paying people more and more. Rachel Reeves MP must raise money while not alienating even more folks than they have done in just over one hundred days. Liz Truss was ridiculed for her ‘budget’ that saw her out of office in less time than it took a lettuce to rot, Labour have waited until now, how long will Keir and Rachel remain in their jobs, it could be years, I think not. I still think Keir was used to get power for others to take over after things ‘go wrong’.

On a lighter note, I spent an agreeable evening in the microbrewery in plain sight in the town centre that few even realise is there, it holds regular events, you can even hire it for family or works parties, etc. Be warned it has some steep stairs, so not for everyone, the building was a brewery back in the day and after other uses reverted to brewing about two decades ago. Have you guessed where I am talking about? It is of course Wigan Brewhouse next to old former Post Office.