I WOULD like to write to express concern at the lack of accountability of some of our councillors, particularly towards Leigh town centre.

We were assured that completion of the busway would bring about the revival of the town centre and would not just be used for exiting the town.

We were also promised that just under £1 million would be spent moving the outdoor market on Gas Street into Bradshawgate and thus improving its fortunes and preventing the wind tunnel effect there.

We are now also being glibly told that prolific house building will ‘boost the economy’.

What we seem to have got in the town centre is businesses closing and expenditure by the council on new street signs with an emblem that nobody wants.

Since spring Swinton Insurance, which has been in the town for more than 40 years, has closed, and Leigh-firm Stephensons has completed its showcase office block in the Wigan Investment Centre and has subsequently moved a lot of its day to day business there and not invested in Leigh).

Waterfields at the top of Bradshawgate together with the Select shop are due to close soon. Again these are shops that have been in the town a long time.

The DK Motor shop on Twist Lane and CycleLife Ratcliffe’s of Leigh, which has been in the town for more than 60 years, have also closed.

Ratcliffe’s also proliferated in Atherton and Tyldesley and these shops have gone as well.

The Leigh police counter is closing too, with some of the staff being sent elsewhere.

As well as all the closures, our corporate businesses have been moved out of the town – hospitals, maternity, some functions of the police, law courts, council offices, tertiary education and the University Technical College sited in Wigan.

This double whammy is destroying the town centre, particularly around Bradshawgate, and nothing is being done to bring in council or outside investment.

Bradshawgate, which had all the local businesses, is becoming shabby and desolate and its lack of appeal to investors just highlights the view of businesses to vacate.

Instead of imposing changes that nobody wants when are our councillors going to get a grip and start giving us promises that mean something and lead to some beneficial, tangible changes that we can be proud of in our town centre?

Or are we just being left to get a more pleasurable shopping experience elsewhere?

Maybe this is the plan.

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