WORK has started on land at Lowton Civic Hall - but don’t panic, Mr Mannering, it’s only being surveyed say Wigan Council - and is not the start of construction work.

I wonder?

After hopes being shattered that the now defunct Leigh Girls’ Grammar School could be saved I have been asked to turn my attention to the Civic Hall site.

One of the town’s premier entertainment venues it faces the axe under Wigan’s Schools For The Future scheme.

As someone who must remain neutral in these matters all I can do is put forward the views of those who feel hard done to by the plan and hope that the council will listen this time.

A founder of the Three Towns Operatic Society, David Kay, and Max Atkins, on behalf of Hesketh Meadow Action Group, have both appealed for help to save the facilities and nearby land used by the community.

David feels very little has been said over the past few months about the possible loss of the Civic Hall as a community facility if the new school goes ahead.

The society has used the venue since 1978 for its annual stage show and concerts. It’s stage is the best in the borough offering all the facilities required to produce first class entertainment.

If the hall is demolished there will be no local comparable facilities to stage any theatrical performances which include complex scenery changes and involve large numbers of people.

In addition to the stage area the hall is used on a regular basis by numerous community groups and is also available for private hire.

David says the society does not wish to become involved in the political arguments but if plans should go ahead the society feel that the facilities offered at the present hall should be replicated and updated, as a separate entity, within the new scheme.

A petition has been organised and just under 1500 signatures of people who support the cause collected.

Fortunately discussions with council representatives have given some encouragement.

The Hesketh Meadow Action Group have been fighting their own campaign for a year now, to stop the planned "megaschool" - which would replace Lowton and Golborne Highs and Lowton J and I - being built on Hesketh Meadow Playing Fields.

It's not just the new school they are fighting against. It will also remove an essential piece of green land used by locals and non-residents who use it for a whole variety of harmless pursuits. They say it threatens Lowton Civic Hall (HMS Cabbala in World War 2); Lowton High School; Golborne High School; traffic along Newton Road and beyond; and seriously threatens to rip the heart out of Golborne.

Nobody wants this to go ahead, except Wigan Council, says Max.

Whatever the outcome, and if all appeals are again ignored, let us just hope that the people will not be robbed of these valuable community facilities.

I will never forgive Wigan for knocking down that historic grammar school building.

THANKS to everyone who wrote saying they were horrified to see the grammar school reduced to a pile of rubble - and agreeing it was a diobolical act. What can you do? It’s just soul destroying to see history wiped off the face of the town, a building that would still have been standing in another century when the modern pile of tat that has replaced it has long fallen down. I despair.