ATHERTON and Leigh have not seen their fair share of investment from Wigan Council for far too long.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in housebuilding.

Even though this has inevitably brought more people to the area, there has been lacking investment in our schools, health and leisure facilities and our roads.

This prolonged neglect has not gone unnoticed.

During a meeting I held in Atherton a few months ago, my constituents shared their frustration at the increasing number of houses being built in and around the town.

Despite their anger being clear, in the recent version of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, Atherton has been allocated another 700 houses by Wigan Council and the Greater Manchester mayor on top of already substantial housebuilding plans, with almost no detail about how the infrastructure is going to cope.

These legitimate concerns of residents should be one of Wigan Council’s top priorities.

Local authorities after all, exist to stand up for the needs of their local residents and represent their collective voice.

Yet Wigan’s full council meeting last week became yet another example that this is not the case.

For some time now, I have also been supporting the work of over a dozen community groups who have been passionately fighting for Atherton’s old library to be turned into a community centre.

The bid for the old library to be turned into a community centre also gained the support of more than 800 people through a petition.

One of Atherton’s independents, Cllr Stuart Gerrard, put forward a motion during last week’s full meeting of Wigan Council, asking its current Labour leadership to allow a feasibility study for a community building in Atherton.

Despite the widespread support for a new community centre, Labour councillor Mark Aldred met the proposal with the comment that Atherton has already had enough money spent on it, without the addition of a community building.

Others added that if one town has a feasibility study, they’ll all want one and another Labour councillor, Chris Ready, even suggested that Atherton did not fit in with Wigan’s plans.

Wigan Council later denied the possibility for Atherton to have the feasibility study for a community centre that independent Cllr Stuart Gerrard proposed.

Although I was shocked to hear these comments had been made in last week’s full council meeting, I was not surprised this was the case.

The comments made by members of Wigan Council’s Labour leadership only confirmed their negligent attitude towards the “outskirts” of the borough.

Despite the attitude of Wigan Council towards our area, I will continue to stand up for the voice of Atherton residents.