THIS weekend I’m delighted to say we celebrated the one-year anniversary of the opening of Leigh Youth Hub.

We can’t believe it has been a full 12 months as it only seems like yesterday that we were cutting the ribbon and young people were officially welcomed into the venue for the first time.

The council is very proud of the facility – following investment of more than £2m – and it has certainly made a huge impact.

The amazing team at the Hub have seen more than 8,000 visitors through the doors, with around 2,000 attending the popular open access evening sessions on Monday, Thursday and Friday nights.

Young people have access to superb facilities, whether they want to come and meet friends and relax, learn new skills or take part in training courses to help shape their future careers.

The Hub also supports the professional sports teams based at Leigh Sports Village - such as the Leigh Leopards and Manchester United Women’s Team – and is a partnership effort with organisations such as Wigan Youth Zone, Department of Work and Pensions, Everything Human Rights and The Holden School, a supportive school for children with social or emotional barriers to learning.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the staff at the Hub for making the first year such a success and we can’t wait to see how the offer progresses through 2024 and continues to make a positive difference to thousands of young people.

It was very encouraging to last week see the latest news from the Greater Manchester Bee Network and the next phase of services coming under local control.

Leigh will be part of a trial period for the 24-hour night bus service, starting this summer.

The pilot will help Transport for Greater Manchester develop the plans with a view to having a full network of night buses across the city region.

This will be a major boost to those who work in the night-time economy and NHS workers, for example. We’ll look forward to seeing how the network develops through 2024.

Next week will see us set our budget plans for 2024/25 at the meeting of the full council on Wednesday, March 6.

Also, now we are in March, it is not too long before the local elections. This year polling day, on Thursday, May 2, will also see our borough residents vote in the Greater Manchester mayoral elections.

If you are not registered to vote, or do not have photo ID, there’s time to get prepared.

For more information visit: www.wigan.gov.uk/elections