Youngsters' new green design plan for busy Wigan main road gets thumbs-up from cycling champ

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Budding young Wigan town planners have come up with an ambitious idea to transform a main road into a green public transport hub.

And the proposal for Mesnes Road in Swinley which was largely the work of seven-year-old Tom Wood and his brother James, five, has proved a hit on social media.

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Their dad Chris Wood, who runs a software company, used computer modelling to show the boys what their vision for the stretch of road running past The Brocket Arms would look like.

And it is certainly very different to the thoroughfare there now, with just one lane for vehicles, plenty of room for cycling and walking and lots of flowers in planters.

Chris Wood with his sons Tom and JamesChris Wood with his sons Tom and James
Chris Wood with his sons Tom and James | ugc

Chris put the design on Twitter and immediately got a massive positive reaction, including from Olympic gold medallist and Greater Manchester cycling commissioner Chris Boardman.

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He is now calling on the council to champion some of the ideas James and Tom have come up with, with their imaginations being fired up by their experiences of lockdown life in Swinley.

Chris, 40, said: “We’ve been going out for walks to get exercise and we’ve talked about how the neighbourhood is different because of what’s happening. We can hear the birdsong and roads are quieter. My youngest son has been learning to ride his bike and he’s conquered that while the street has been quiet.

“We walked around saying we would change this or that and then one Sunday afternoon thought we would mess around on the computer and just redesign a bit of Mesnes Road.

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The computer-generated image Chris and his sons made of Mesnes RoadThe computer-generated image Chris and his sons made of Mesnes Road
The computer-generated image Chris and his sons made of Mesnes Road | ugc

“We made it a one-way street and the boys said they would like to be able to ride their bikes all the way down to the park without having to keep stopping to look for cars.

“They also wanted to be able to sit down with an ice lolly from the shop and have lots of flowers to look at.

“Another requirement was a picture of a boy or girl on a scooter and once we found an image of a pizza delivery person on a bike that had to go in.

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“The whole theme was more space for people on foot or bike and a more enjoyable space for everyone, rather than just a means of getting cars from A to B.

“Obviously I’m biased but I think what they did within a couple of hours is way nicer than what the council has done in decades. I just think a lot of it makes sense.

“It struck me that maybe the kids have got the priorities right and the grown-ups haven’t.”

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Chris, who is managing director of Red Bear Software which is based at the Wigan Investment Centre, said he was proud of his sons’ eco-vision and particularly their interest in space for two-wheeled transport as he is a keen cyclist himself who used pedal power to commute to work before the current lockdown.

He admits that the reaction after posting the pictures of the new-look Mesnes Road on Twitter has taken the whole family completely by surprise.

Chris said: “I’m stunned by everything that has happened and the boys are really pleased too. My phone has been beeping continuously every few seconds since we posted it.

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“Chris Boardman said it was ‘sensational’. Once I had explained to Tom and James who he was and about him winning the Olympics they were pretty gobsmacked.”

Chris has now tagged the local authority and Wigan Central’s councillors into his posts about the designs and is wondering whether it would be possible to take it further than just an exercise in blue-sky thinking.

He said: “It started as a bit of fun and we shared it because we loved the outcome but now I’m thinking there’s something to this.

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“Wigan has done quite a lot compared to many other places but as a society as a whole we need to do a lot more, with more public transport and fewer cars on the roads.”

A Wigan Council spokesperson said: “This unprecedented health crisis we are living through will undoubtedly change many aspects of how we live our lives once life returns to normality.

We would like to thank Chris and his children for using their time indoors productively and thinking creatively about how we might implement greener infrastructure for everyone to use in the future.”