Feature on the changing face of Wigan Town Centre

Wigan Post reporter Sian Jones presents a feature on Wigan town centre.

Transcript

00:00 Hello, I'm Sian from the Wigan Post and we're here on King Street, which used to be bustling

00:05 before the pandemic and cost of living crisis, but it's still home to the iconic Boxing Day fancy

00:11 dress night out where thousands of people turn out in their crazy costumes. King Street is also

00:16 the centre of the Heritage Action Zone, which has involved the Streets Apart project, which

00:21 finished a few months back with a big festival on the street. And we're here outside the Royal

00:28 Court Theatre, which is currently being renovated in the hope to bring the culture and heritage

00:34 back to its former glory. Behind me is the Gallery Shopping Centre, which is currently being

00:40 demolished to make way for the £125 million regeneration project known as Galleries 25,

00:47 which will include a media centre with a cinema, a bowling alley, a few shops, a hotel and some

00:55 retail space, as well as some flats as well, and a brand new market hall, which is all set to open in

01:02 2025.

01:04 Marco, I don't know why I spent all this money

01:18 when we've not got a proper shopping wig on now.

01:24 Not one big store in Wigan.

01:26 What would you like to see come to Wigan? If you had the pot of money, what would you like to see?

01:33 I'd like to see the big shops coming back. According to FOM, they're going to come in

01:37 the new precinct, but how long is that going to take?

01:41 It's my first time in Wigan, you know, I quite like it. Everyone's been quite friendly around

01:47 here. I see there's quite a lot of new development around here. You know, I can't wait to come back

01:50 next time and see what's going on. Since this building here, which hopefully brings more people

01:58 after it's finished, but at the moment it has affected businesses a lot. A lot of customers

02:06 we have lost due to no proper shop open to come to Wigan for shopping. So they said there's no

02:17 reason for us to come to town. So there is a positive thing about this building they're doing,

02:27 but the negative is a lot more at the moment with bringing all dust in the town centre.

02:35 People just don't come here anymore.