General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

The furore over the Kilhey Court escapade has been stimulated by one simple fact – it’s in Standish locality!! – Had that hotel been in Scholes & Platt Bridge would we have had a similar outcry? I very much doubt it – but just because Antoinette Camille Cholmondely, in her half a million-pound house, with two BMWs, is going to have to endure the occasional ‘undesirable’ walking past her freshly paved drive and well-manicured lawn, then: let’s have a protest, boycott posh dining at Alberts, email Rishi, threaten direct action by drinking mild and not Campari and refuse to put the external decorative lights on.

Meanwhile in Scholes we have had to endure, for the past three years, the biggest bunch of miscreants housed in a hotel under the pseudonym of ‘homeless’, when in fact they are a mix of drug users and dealers, alcoholics and shoplifters who’s daily encroachment on the emergency services has been a travesty to anyone who has witnessed it. The area outside is awash with drug paraphernalia, the users themselves either sleeping off in the nearby bushes or down by the river Douglas, and the local residents and users of the local pub being constantly hounded by the shoplifters on their return from town offering every item they are able to carry.

Have we had a similar outcry? Has our local councillor got involved? Have we had a protest? – Has there been a petition organised?....... The answer has been NO – because this is Scholes and because, in some folks’ eyes, we are at the lower ebb of the Wigan social spectrum we are expected to accept it.

But I’ll tell you what Standishers, when you get your ‘refugees’, and get them you WILL, can we do a swap? Send them down here to the Mecure Hotel in Scholes and you take the current ‘residents’ off our hands – ANYTHING will be an improvement!