Tony Porter Ponders: Haigh Hall, Crewe rethink and a huge personal milestone

Must we remind Labour Councillors, yet again, they are your servants not your masters? Reports have come regarding Haigh Hall along with various rumours as what is, or is not, happening, the council have published an itinerary of dates for the various phases to be completed, ending in 2026. However, it’s been rumoured all is not well at this historic site with many involved sounding alarmed at recent events. The family of Theodore Major have removed permission for his paintings to be loaned for a major exhibition as the main part of the finished project after Al & Al were removed, without warning a couple of months ago and the current Earl of Crawford, whose family were former owners of the Hall is ‘devastated’ over recent events. I did say a few weeks ago I was disappointed that the scaffolding had not been taken down, and hoped everything was OK just before all this kicked off. It does seem like when you try and do many things at once, things start to go awry. Wigan Pier a prime example and Galleries 25 looking like it will be the number of years it will take to complete, not the year it was planned to be completed. Talking of which, I have been following the redevelopment in Crewe and was planning on visiting it soon to see how things are going but imagine my surprise when Northwest Tonight did a piece on a multistorey car park that cost £11m to build is taking on average only £75 a day in parking fees. Where is this? Crewe, I saw a partly built car park on New Years Day, filmed for Wigan Watch, and was hoping more would have been built by the time of my next visit in a few weeks’ time. But apart from a basic bus station nothing else had been built, like Wigan there was to be a cinema, apartments and other structures, but the report said these had been ‘scaled back’. Now is the time for our council to be realistic about our redevelopments, they get voted in by you, but they seem to want to answer to no one, is 2026 a realistic finish time for Haigh Hall, is it time to dial back the ambitious plans in Wigan Town Centre rather than have nothing? Is it time we demand our representatives represent us? Concentrate on one thing at once, Wigan Market Hall, then Wigan Pier, then the Hotel and other stuff in your town centre. I get accused of ‘Running Wigan Down’ I am trying to be positive, there only seems one group running the town down, we all know who they are.

Earlier I mentioned Wigan Watch, my random look at the stuff going on in and around the town centre, that along with a TV remote control video, don’t ask, has seen my YouTube channel reach a staggering two million views, most of which are in the last three years. So, I would like to thank all who have watched, subscribed and supported the channel on this truly jaw dropping journey. I hope to record the rebuild and future of our great town over the next few years and we can look back and laugh at how wrong we were that nothing would be built.