General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Ken....I've only just moved to Abram!! Now your telling me to leave
Its true Abram has little to offer the teens here, in fact it has NOTHING to offer them apart from the odd ASBO thrown around.
However I have found that there is a great deal of community spirit here, but mainly through the old folk.I have fantastic neighbours, they are a joy to be around. They are also a generation or 2 in front of me.I live on Warrington road,there aren't many shops etc here now, most are houses.....like mine , it was a shop till we bought it and made it into a house.
But its not as you apint it, it still has a village feel to it, we've found most people are friendly, the odd nutter thrown in though same as anywhere else.There are a lot of people moving in who aren't from Abram, because house prices are still pretty good here, plus you have the 2 new estates being built now...........one is for the rich lol!
We have beautiful countryside around us, lots of barges coming through the Dover lock end, which the kids like,a fantastic stables and riding school, its rich with history too.We have good schools locally.....Bonus!I moved away from Wigan Borough for 16 years, but its nice to be home again.
We do have a problem with the teens,they just need something to do and somewhere to go instead of being moved up and down the street all evening.
They are too young to go to the pub, and too old for the play areas , it can't be too much to ask for a place to be made available for these kids.Platt Bridge has The Rock, and its used a lot.Like a giant cage with sports facilities and somewhere to sit and hang around.The police have got to know the kids who use it, and thats half the battle. Its stops the 'them and us' mentality and a bit of mutual respect builds up.
Its wonderful having the regeneration of our areas, but what use are mosaics, statues, flower baskets etc?They look pretty but no one really gets any benefit from them.