Wigan shops encourage customers to take the weight off their feet

Janet Presho, Pauline Barraclough and Sue Balderstone, promote the Take a Seat campaign, encouraging shops and cafes to be more age-friendly, by offering chairs and refreshments to elderly members of the community.

Sit Thi Deawn, a distinctly Wiganese play on “take a seat”, is supporting the borough’s less mobile residents by encouraging shops to offer seating, refreshments and a friendly environment, without any pressure for them to buy anything.

The project is a local take on the national Take A Seat campaign, which began life as a small pilot project in South Manchester in 2016.

The initiative successfully launched in Atherton and Pemberton last year, and has now expanded into Leigh.

Martine Royle, part of the Ambition for Aging group which organises Sit Thi Deawn, said: “We thought it was a brilliant idea, because we had a lot of complaints about going shopping.

“If you have walking difficulties, and struggle to find toilets or a place to sit down, it’s hard.

“We thought it would be good to talk to local businesses and say that this is a great way of encouraging people to get back onto the high street.”

Volunteers with the Ambition for Ageing (AFA) project in Leigh have chatted to local businesses in the town centre to see whether they are already age friendly or whether they would like to become more age friendly.

Shops have been asked to offer anyone over the age of 50 who feels unwell, a seat, a cup of water or tea, an emergency phone call and friendly, helpful staff.

In addition, some businesses have also offered an emergency toilet.

These issues have been identified by older people at AFA forums as being the chief reasons why they avoid the town centre these

days.

Additional guidelines have been given to shops to make their premises more accessible inside.

To find out more about Sit Thi Deawn, visit ageuk.org/wiganborough