Wigan Borough Environment & Heritage Network
4.0 Greenheart and Bickershaw North - Presentation
Joanne Harrop - Project Manager for Greenheart described the vision for the
Regional Park Project which would, with its various partners transform a huge
area of past industrial dereliction into a diverse range of facilities and habitats
within a thriving countryside setting for the benefit of the Borough, the North
West region and beyond.
Joanne described how phase one of the development had been implemented including
habitat work, improvements to the Bridgewater Canal towpath, construction of
an access road and car park enabling work and improvements to the habitat within
the Bickershaw site, two phases of the Whelley Loop Line and a multi-user route.
She identified the key objectives for a successful delivery of the project and
described the five gateway sites (Wigan Flashes, Bickershaw Pennington Flash,
Haigh Hall and Amberswood) which would act as a filter destination for a significant
number of visitors. She outlined the development, to date, on the Bickershaw
North site which would form a country park within the regional park, stressed
the key role of partners and underlined the importance of local residents' involvement
and ownership of the project.
In response to members concerns about the level of public consultation, including
consideration of local expertise, Joanne said that effective ways of including
such contributions were currently under consideration and would be announced
shortly.
Additionally, Joanne offered to update the network at regular intervals as the
project progressed.
5.0 Heritage Network DVD and Resource Pack Project.
5.1 Peter Goodwin (Mirabilis Media) described his role in the project and emphasised
the need for the proposed steering group to meet in order to agree an action
plan in consultation with those schools that had agreed to become involved and
report progress to the next meeting.
6.0 Minutes of the 24th November meeting.
6.1 The minutes were approved.
7.0 Matters Arising
7.1. The Chairman reported that he had written to lan Harrison, Head of Neighbourhood
Services concerning Township Forum agendas and was awaiting a response.
8.0 Local History Day and Open Days 2009.
8.1 The Chairman suggested that local organisations might wish to consider organising
a local history day (national day Saturday 6th June) and/or open days (Sept)
in their localities (possibly in' association with local libraries) in order
to help promote interest in their work and possibly
encourage new members local schools. Ideas to be fed back to him/secretary and
a programme drawn up at the February Network meeting.
9.0 BLINT (Buildings of Local Interest) survey update.
9.1 Jason Kennedy (Conservation & Design Officer) - Indicated that over
1000 submissions had been assessed by a panel under his guidance which included
members of the Heritage Network. He outlined the criteria which submissions
had to meet and the various stages of the process. A leaflet had been produced
which would be sent to each address for those householders' views/approval of
their possible inclusion on the "local list". Additional submissions
could be forwarded to Jason at anytime.
10.0 Members' News
10.1 Members presented an interesting range of local activities being undertaken
by their societies.
11.0 Any Other Business - Nil.
Date of Next Meeting - Monday 16th February 2009 at 10.30 a.m. in the Blue Coat
Building.