Hands Off The Marsh Playing Fields

In 1931 on her passing, wealthy Miss Mary Marsh of Leigh left in her will a large section of her own land on Wigan Road to ALL the children of Leigh, as a massive goodwill gesture to the town and to encourage sportsmanship and budding athletes of the town. It was entrusted by Miss Marsh's selected trustees to ensure it remained in safe hands for the children of Leigh and to ensure it remained that way forever!

Unfortunately, all the past trustees of Miss Marsh's estate have all since passed away and the covenant now lays alone in a Leigh bank vault with no-one being able to gain access to it? That is unless, you are one of the scurrying rats from the higher echelons of Wigan Metro council! Who have seized on the opportunity to rip the heart out of our community even further than they already have done so in the recent past. And by hook or by crook are proposing to put a road through these sacred fields of our children, just so they can feast on the vast profits unabated that the tender from BROOKHOUSE GROUP will afford them for parts of our bequeathed land.

Blood, sweat, tears and the odd moment of joy I have had on these fields, through my junior years to the more senior times. Football, rugby and cricket I have played on the Marsh Playing Fields, and so too have many of my friends and family as too have the many other thousands and thousands of children, juniors and seniors before and after me.

So, early on last week I attended a PUBLIC MEETING at the Edna Road Labour Club off Wigan Road (and yes, I did wipe my feet as I came out) to hear what our local MP and Cabinet Minister Andy Burnham had to say on the matter, and he was accompanied by two of his "lackey" Leigh Labour councillors for this particular ward Myra Whiteside and Sue Greensmith .

I will quote:

Mr Burnham said: "I attended the public meeting to hear for myself the strength of feeling on this issue."It is clear to me that the proposal to build on part of the field is completely unacceptable to the vast majority of local people."As a minister, I am very familiar with the issues regarding the loss of playing fields. I find it hard to believe that a similar proposal would have been put forward in the south of England over a village green. As long as I do this job I will not accept second best for Leigh."Local people are not opposed to the principle of development or the creation of a link road to relieve congestion on the Sportsman's junction to help traffic flows through Leigh, but this should not be done at any cost."As an alternative site exists, Brookhouse now needs to develop an alternative plan and ditch their current proposals."

Hmmmmmmm..........very commendable, Andy! (Lip service anyone?)

It was brutally brilliant to see and hear what Cllr. Myra Whiteside had to say on the matter and she dropped quicker than a lead bleedin balloon amongst the 200 or so very hostile attendees there that evening and basically, everything she said was treated with the contempt it deserved.

I later challanged Cllr. Myra Whitside as she was leaving and asked if it was that she truly believed in saving these fields, and then the inevitable happened, would she be so aghast and disgusted at the actions of her fellow colleagues in the Labour dominated chambers to allow this to happen, would she resign from her post in protest? And show her ward that she was indeed commited wholeheartedly to saving these fields?

"OF COURSE NOT............!!" She screamed:

"And whom I speaking too?"

" I am representing the Leigh British National Party"

"You Nazi! I don't debate with Fascist's, my father fought the Nazi's, you Nazi!"

"Well, so did both my Grandfathers" I told her: "So, where does that take us now?"

"I DON'T DEBATE WITH NAZI'S" and Cllr. Myra Whiteside was then ushered out of the club.

Proving, once again they have no social conscience about calling someone a Nazi and inciting incidents like that of Tony Ward's plight a month earlier in Leigh. But, people are now realising who the real Nazi's are (as Morgan also defines) and from that childish and defamotary rant by Cllr. Whiteside we managed to encourage a good number of those who had witnessed this verbal assault on me, and to see the true face of of the British National Party in Leigh and Wigan a few days later at our own meeting, and in Cllr. Whiteside's own back yard I might add! And they left a little more happier than the Edna Road meeting, and especially with their new pin badges attached to their proud chests!

I will confess that it has taken a little time to write about this, but, we have been pursuing the legal avenues to bring Cllr:Myra Whiteside to be held accountable for her actions that evening!

So watch this space!

Oh! And if you are reading this Myra? Just be careful of those "whistleblowers" and don't forget! "loose lips sinks ships..................?????"