Notorious Wigan grot spot given clean-up

The teams collected sack loads of rubbish including hundreds of lager cans and dozens of vodka bottles used dog mess bags and empty food containers on land behind the empty BT telephone exchange in Dorning Street, which runs adjacent to the Spring Gardens housing estate.

Wigan Central councillor George Davies organised the clean-up with fellow ward representative Lawrence Hunt.

Coun Davies said: “We would like to thank the councils teams for there outstanding work in clearing out all this shrubbery and getting rid of what was becoming a drinking den.

“The environment we live in is the key to how we feel about the neighbourhood so please keep your area clean.

“Our street scene and Beat It teams do a brilliant job for the borough and must be applauded in keeping our wards clean.”

Coun Davies and Hunt have been outspoken on the grime and litter surrounding the old telephone exchange in recent weeks, describing the area as “a minefield of lager cans and vodka bottles”.

“At the back of the building, which comes into the little estate at Spring Gardens, there must be over 2,000 lager cans, as well as the usual rubbish dumping,” said Coun Davies. “It looks like people are going into the little den at the back of the empty building. Youngsters are getting into the ground, people are going in there and drinking. It needs fencing off.”

Coun Hunt said: “A big clean-up is needed, but a new safety fence and warning signs are needed to be put into place to keep away these undesirables.”

For decades, the building was home to British Telecom’s telephone exchange. It employed call handlers as far back as 1928 and, at its height, the centre was handling more than 20,000 calls each week, before it closed in 1992.