Has Haigh Hall been sold to private developers?

In the usual spin Wigan council reports here of the development of Haigh Hall, now 'Haigh Woodland Park development'.

http://www.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Leisure/Haigh-Woodland-Park-development.aspx
Haigh Hall will become a four star boutique hotel with spa and fitness centre. A cycle centre will also be developed and the court yard will house cafes/bars/restaurants.

Has Wigan Council secretly sold Haigh Hall we ask?

Or in line with their Tory tendencies has Wigan Labour party signed another disastrous Private Finance Agreement and saddled Wigan taxpayers with millions of pounds of debt for the next 150 years?
Despite their rhetoric many readers of this blog know that the council has privatised most of the councils work. From issuing littler penalties to child care to social services, the Labour party has privatised it all, allowing private companies to make massive profits.

The worse case seems to be the Wigan life centre, that conversion from Wigan Baths, saddled taxpayers and their children with £68 million of debt.
http://ukipwigan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/like-swim-that-will-be-203-million.html

Wigan Council makes no mention of the financial agreement with the private firm, Contessa Hotels Ltd, but you can bet its not good news for the taxpayer. -
In 2010 the company dropped out of a contract with Warrington council over a similar project at Walton Hall. Those plans its reported, would have seen part of the public land closed off except to those using the hotel and a 150 year lease signed.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/burnley/8195802.print/

http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/8312789.print/

http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/8337446.Council_reputation__tarnished__over_Walton_Hall/

Wigan votes yes to Lord Mayor, 102 yes votes to 230,000

People may remember this from 2009 when only 102 people voted for an elected mayor for Wigan.

http://www.leylandguardian.co.uk/news/local/town-apathy-in-mayor-vote-1-201784

Despite this Lord Smith is pushing ahead with his plans to become the first Lord Mayor of Manchester

Moves for Wigan to have its own Boris Johnson-style elected Mayor have been met with apathy!

Despite a huge consultation exercise of 230,000 adults registered as residents in Wigan borough, just 123 have bothered to vote on whether we should have our own Mayor. But of those who did bother to take part, more than 82 per cent of the respondents wanted an elected Mayor for Wigan, with 17.3 percent (21 respondents) preferring the 'Leader' system.

A special meeting of the full council will be held on Wednesday to hear the results.

Councillors are being urged to endorse the current Leader and Cabinet model from May's town hall elections. But from next year the Leader, currently Lord Peter Smith, will have a fixed term of office of four years with enhanced executive powers and the Cabinet will be limited to a maximum of 10.

The Metro's consultation took the form of an article in their Borough Life magazine, which is sent to 139,000 Wigan homes.

Others articles were carried in the Evening Post and our sister titles, the Wigan Observer plus the Wigan/Leigh Reporters. The consultation was also highlighted on the council's website, with a link to a dedicated electronic survey form.

Members of the public were also invited to send in their views. The response rate actually works out at a pitiful 0.051 per cent.

A council spokesman acknowledged that the response rate had been "extremely low" and therefore any weight given to it would be difficult to evaluate.

Angry Independent Coun Norman Bradbury – a former member of the ruling Labour group himself – dismissed the consultation exercise as a "insult to democracy." But Borough Solicitor Kevin Lawson said: "Wigan has done as much as most councils to consult residents. "But the fact is that, for whatever reason, it does not appear to be a subject that has interested most people."

Even Lisa Nandy Labour MP has criticised the backroom tactics that went on..

http://www.lisanandy.co.uk/news/we-need-a-real-debate-on-devolution-and-an-end-to-backroom-deals/

Labour run Wigan council puts £1/2 million counselling service out to private companies

Did you know that Labour run Wigan council has privatised numerous services despite Wigan Labour party claiming to be the party opposed to privatisation?

One such contract is below for counselling services recently put out to tender and worth up to £1/2 million to private companies.

Wigan Council

Title:

084 – Referred Counselling Service

Additional Categorisation(s):

None

Summary:

The Referred Counselling Service will provide support and counselling for all referred Parents, Children & Young People who meet the service criteria.  The service will focus on providing:

A contribution to the 0-5 Mental Health service for infants and children by providing support and counselling for parents identified as suffering from post natal depression and other vulnerabilities.

Supporting the specific vulnerabilities, identified within the targeted groups, and by offering counselling to priority groups.

Responding to the needs of newly emerging groups, specific incidents and emergencies as may occur within the Borough.

Indicative budget:

£300,000 contract value for 3 years of service delivery, equating to £100,000 a year.

The contract could be extended by a further 2 years (£200,000).

Address:

Targeted and Specialist Commissioning Team, People Directorate: Children, Adults and Families, Wigan Council
Progress House, Westwood Park Drive
Wigan
Greater Manchester
WN3 4HH
United Kingdom

Key Dates

Estimated contract start date:

11/11/2014

Other Information

Estimated Value (£):

300000

Contract Period:

36 (months)

Anticipated Extension Period:

24 (months)

Wigan council hit with £72,000 compensation claim for 1 unfair dismissal claim

Incompetence hits Labour run Wigan council again as it's reported by Thompsons Solictors that they have recently dealt with an unfair dismissal claim, taking Wigan council to the cleaners for £72,000.

Jamie Humphries, from Thompsons Solicitors, said: “It is astonishing that the Council thought it right that our client should have to re-apply for the job she was already doing and then thought it right to dismiss her when she scored just below a competency bar of which the Council’s own Redeployment Procedure made no mention. We are happy to have been able to work with UNISON to secure the maximum amount of compensation possible and we hope this goes some way to help our client in dealing with the financial stress that her premature dismissal has cost her.”

Full story here..

Wigan Labour MP slated by Wigan Athletic fans

Labour MP Lisa Nandy has been slated by Wigan Athletic fans after writing to Dave Whelan to criticise the potential signing of Malky Mackay as new manager.

Numerous fans took to twitter to lambast the MP.

Some even put a lot of work on the desk top publishing software to make their feelings known.

Labour Leader of Wigan council blasted by own party over bid to become Mayor of Manchester

See the full story here; http://www.wigantoday.net/news/local/labour-fury-over-county-boris-plan-1-6948878

Lord Smith of Leigh, leader of Labour run Wigan council has been openly criticised by his own local Labour party in his bid to become the first mayor of Greater Manchester.

Apparently Lord Smith failed to notify anyone, including his own Labour Councillors of his agreement with Tory chancellor George Osborne over a Mayor for Greater Manchester.

Criticised as “shocking and anti-democratic” the Labour party even admitted that the borough had massively rejected a Boris-style elected Mayor just two years ago. 

Makerfield CLP chairman Sir Ian McCartney said ‘The first most people at the CLP, members and Councillors, knew about this was seeing Peter Smith sharing a platform with the Tory Chancellor on the television news that evening as they made the announcement’, ‘there is something distinctly anti-democratic about the way this is being handled that really does ring the alarm bells’

Labour run Wigan council fails to pay its staff the minimum wage

January 2013 – Labour MP Lisa Nandy praises her Labour run Wigan Council for pledging to pay staff a living wage ‘It’s time the Government followed Wigan Council’s example’

Lisa calls on Government to follow Wigan Council’s example and pay the Living Wage

Lisa Nandy supported by Wigan Labour Councillors Cllr Lawrence Hunt, Cllr Paul Collins, Cllr Jo Platt, Cllr Mike Crosby, Cllr Mike McLoughlin, and Cllr. Damian Edwardson sign up to the living wage pledge; 

MP backs campaign for the living wage in Wigan

Fast forward to November 2014 when it has been discovered that 2 years later not only do Wigan council not pay a living wage but they are receiving complaints from staff and the unions for not paying the minimum wage.

Wigan Council - carer minimum wage ‘injustice’

Exactly the same thing happened with zero hours contracts;

http://ukipwigan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/wigan-labour-mp-says-no-to-zero-hours.html

Figures released for Female Genital Mutilation in England

The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has reported that in September 2014 alone, 467 female patients treated at acute NHS hospital trusts in England were newly identified as having been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM).

Read the press release here http://www.hscic.gov.uk/5147

Shocking report shows legal system has failed children in Wigan & Greater Manchester

The report entitled 'Real Voices' by MP Ann Coffey is a sad reflection of the way child sex abuse cases are dealt with in Greater Manchester (including Wigan) in the 21st century.

The report found here, covers many issues but we are highlighting a couple;

The conviction rates in Greater Manchester for sexual offences involving a child under 16 for the six years from 2008 to 2013, included rape, sexual assaults, gross indecency and sexual grooming is appalling.

'Compiled by the House of Commons library, the figures show that the total recorded crime for nine types of sexual offences against children under 16 in Greater Manchester was 12,879, and yet only 2,341 defendants were taken to court of those only 1,078 were found guilty'

There was criticism of Wigan’s safeguarding children’s board, they and other boards didn’t respond to requests for information...

'I wrote to the chairs of the Local Safeguarding Children Boards in February specifically asking about the incidence and trends of CSE in their areas. I was disappointed that only six of the ten LSCBs gave any figures and fewer than six responded to the question about trends in CSE in their area. I understand the reluctance to discuss numbers publically because of the fear of reputational damage, but if the public are to be better informed and if attitudes are to change, we require a greater degree of openness.'

In Wigan there has been an increase in victims in the last twelve months but as per the above no figures have been produced.

Furious parents accuse Wigan council of ignoring repeated allegations of neglect and abuse of disabled children in its schools

Disability News Service spoke to six wigan families, all of whom have complained about the way their children have been treated, they said school governors, Wigan council, Ofsted and the Department for Education have all failed to act, over a string of complaints,

Full story here;

http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2014/10/council-ignored-school-abuse-allegations-say-parents/