There's nothing like a nice 'Welcome to Wigan' than the abortion that is the 'Old Town Hall':



A ing embarrassment to the town.

Does anyone know the story behind that? Why is it half knocked down? Did it just crumble? I cant remember it not being like that....

The rest is listed IIRC

Yeah, it's a listed building which means they cannot level the fooker.

There must be a good few pubes knocking about too. Always are in places like that lol.

And whilst this has been built - and it seems not that great a facility, they are closing other local pools.

It's not just a pool/gym though. A lot of council office workers are now based there and most of the PCT staff who were based at Bryan House (above Maximes) have moved in as well.

Sorry, I can't agree with the Life Centre at all. I had a proper heated discussion with my GF about this because she thinks it's great.

It cost a fortune in times when the country can't afford it, and what's it replaced? I could understand it if they'd built this modern cost-efficient facility and it had replaced a load of decrepit council buildings that could then be, for instance, sold on to recoup some of the cost.

But it's not replaced ANYTHING. It's simply an expensive addition to the already bloated infrastructure in this town. The baths are smaller than the old ones. There are plenty private and council run gyms around so another is not needed. All the people who work there - where have they moved from, and what's happening with the where they've moved from?

It doesn't end there. The Wigan museum. That's the one you've never heard of in the old library at the bottom of Library Street. They spent a fortune on it, never marketed it, and as a result no-one visits, certainly not anyone I've ever spoken to anyway. It's also closed two days a week. A £2m (and the rest) refurb of a building worth £1m.

I'd be delighted if someone could prove me wrong on the above, and I'd be even more delighted if anyone could point out to me what is being SOLD in order to pay for these projects. No-one deserves to be in decrepit facilities at work, so in principle, I don't object to the Life Centre etc per se. What I do object to, is how it appears it's just another extravagant addition, rather than a replacement for something, that will actually benefit the town's coffers.

That is a HUGE downside. In this day and age, facilities like this need to be out of town.

Even the old pool was a feckup by our wonderful council.

It was meant to be Olympic sized so they could use it for official competitions. Only the idiots who built it forgot to factor in that the pool had to be tiled, and as a result, once it WAS tiled, it was slightly too short.

I wonder how much it cost us all for them to come up with that acronym?

An arts centre/concert hall/theatre would be a much better addition to Wigan, in my opinion. And it would make money.

If St Helens can get 52 weeks out of that tip, the Theatre Royal, and Warrington can out of the Parr Hall/Pyramid, I'm sure we can.

I'm quite happy payin 25 quid a month at dw. The pool is nice and clean and never busy at the times I go. The changing rooms dont quite fit my needs but I can live with that. and its free parking right at the front doors...

I was looking into joining at this new place but like people have said parkings a problem. For me I would end up spending double a month what I am now simply through having to park my car nearby. Certainly not leaving my car at the lower end of scholes.....

no matter how much of a heap of junk it is



And the timetable for the pool puts me off, I like going for a swim when I feel like it. Not when a timetable tells me I can.

The format of the building was a result of the grants available from central government. So don't be too critical of the council. I fought hard to retain a 50m pool in the borough but it was a non-starter because there were no grants for that! For that reason I do blame the council. We even proposed that they look at putting a 50m pool facility at Robin Park where there is parking but they wanted the free dosh and so the new town centre facility was the result. A short term financially driven venture!

Definatley.

There is genuine demand for an arts / performance centre in the town and has been for as long as i can remember and as you say its something that would make money and more importantly be of great benefit to the people of Wigan.

As for the design of the building itself what is the obssesion with that horrible plastic clading that they seem to put on many new buildings? - its going to look terrible in ten years time.

What they should do is sell it to a builder, tell him he can't knock it down then close up shop for a long bank holiday weekend and hey presto.

I was one of the first batch of swimmers that left Wigan Wasp to join Wigan Scheme of Excellence all them years ago when it was introduced. Many a good memories, especially when I broke the record for the pool at my age group. I often wonder what or who held the records when they demolished the International pool.

Ridiculous as it sounds, it's entirely possible that the council won't have sold the building because they're not allowed to.

Several council buildings in St Helens were, apparently, donated to them by the Pilkington family with a specific covenant stating that they were to be used only by the council, and cannot be used for anything else.

That said, the government can do what they want - I'm sure a rule change here or a new law somewhere or other can eradicate such things. I mean, you would think, wouldn't you, that getting that part of town looking the part would take some form of priority.

But no. Let's waste £200m+ on building a red and black box in the middle of town instead.

Surely the 'true cost' is infact the initial outlay plus interest on repayments? It's no different to how finance is raised on most other commercial developments with future income factored in to counterbalance finance expenses.

FWIW I've no great objection to the place, the wife has joined but I won't be. Though I tend to use gyms mainly to do weights, the wet centre is usually the relaxing part at the end of a sesh. A multi-use pool with dozens of folk gawping at the side doesn't tick the box for me.

Surely they can build something on the land that incorporates the buildings still there (done up as best they can obv) in the same way Arsenal did with the marble halls at Highbury.

I'm with you Matty. I haven't paid to park in Wigan for about a decade.

Looking at the layout of the 'Old Town Hall' if converted right it would make pretty decent sized Theatre.

Not certain about that. You'd be suprised at how much space you actually need for a theatre. It's not just the place you sit to watch the show, you also have front of house and box-officing areas, bar areas, lighting & sound booth, then you have to have a sufficient stage to house what you want to house, with a fly-tower above, space for dressing rooms, green room, space for curtain tracks, fly works, electrics, workshop etc etc etc. For me, the only way to do it justice, would be to knock down Francos, and use the entire plot of land, but again, no parking...

Yeah, use the whole area right to the pavement of the Dual Carriageway, get rid of Franco's and use that existing small car park on the corner. Just google mapped it and there's probably more square feet of land than the existing Apollo in Manchester.

Re: Parking, there ain't much around the Apollo either.