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In the meantime you can still buy from the crooks on Accrington Market

Pay back £19,685 or spend a year in jail, Burnley benefit cheat is told (From Lancashire Telegraph)

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Paying it back at £17. 70p a week they're having a laugh:mad:

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Should go to jail and pay the money back when he's out :mad:

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Exactly:mad:

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I took my Uniforn Trousers to Norths Dry Cleaners today, but they too have shut for good, recently it seems.....

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Yeah well, you're starting to get a little o(l)der, could the smell have anything on their decision?
http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/i...ellie_pooh.gif

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Hey...I had a bath just last year:Banane17:

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'cos you needed it?

Or

As an attempt to keep your dry cleaning bill to a minimum?

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Bit of overkill that BG:D

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Did a moonlight last Tuesday night

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unfortunately Thomas Cook are shutting their office in town, according to the ITV news. great...

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What the Devil are you doing posting on here?

As one of the only employed people on site you should be doing overtime.

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Accrington and Preston!
How many are employed there?

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Good point.....I seem to be turning into Bee....aggggghhhhhh

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Another casualty of internet shopping Gordon :(

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:)

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Technically there are 2 Thomas Cook places in Accrington. The one which operates the cruise stuff from the Globe Centre which is the one referred to as closing, and the shop itself.

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450 jobs at the globe centre is very significant for hyndburn.

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Booking of holidays on the internet is the reason for these job loses along with other industries affected by on line dealing

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agreed .lets hope the internet doesnt crash::eek: or were knackered:)

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Where did you pluck that figure from :confused: Have Thomas Cook taken on another 350 staff just to lay them off

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Why have they got as many as 100 employees at the Globe,Thomas Cook?:confused:

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According to the Observer they have

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I would very much doubt it:confused: But if they do it explains Cmons post 100 is 450 in Scotland.:D

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i read it in the sun :D or somewhere:eek::D

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The Mirror has 100.

Thomas Cook to axe 2,500 jobs and close another 195 high street branches plus call centre in Accrington - Mirror Online

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should have read that first:D.its a fine balanced paper.

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Enough said then

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market stall rates are going up on 1st april

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Should that come under changes?:confused: Its nowt new wi them grabbing sods.:(

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We wont have any market at all if they keep putting rents up

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Maybe the Laird of Rishton will be letting us know why the rents have to go up in such lean times for traders:rolleyes:

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There isn't much of one now:(

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Went to town today for first time in ages, to Specsavers.
Afterwards, called in for a Costa coffee.....
For me, no other reason to be there, & I have lived here for nearly 50yrs....
Why should 'outsiders' bother to come here??

Gerard

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To have their eyes tested and then run away at what they can now see? :rolleyes:

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there could be a market for t-shirts aimed at visitors

hope L.D dosnt mind

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To be honest I think LD would make a fortune if he printed them accyman:D

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what they need to do is scrap the Monday and Wednesday market and Sunday and go back to the market days //// tues fri and sat: and maybe ( just maybe keep the Thursday one)

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Very rarely use the outside market (apart from getting the dog a bone ) . It's a pickpockets paradise, everyone pushed together in a small space. I tend to walk around it to get where I want to go. Always seems full of junk and empty stalls.

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Blockbusters closing now

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That's not really surprising Bernie really I've got Sky on demand and there are thousands of films for free, nobody has any need tramp down town to rent films anymore, they can do it without moving out of their homes

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the full of junk bit is spot on for a Monday and Wednesday.... which is why I personally feel they should scrap it full stop.... however it is quite safe on the market there are shed loads of first class CCTV and they really are good: but I do know what you mean...

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Got to agree with that, who wants to spend a couple of quid hiring a DVD which you have to pick up, then return, when you can get it for part of the price.

Without moving from your screen or your choccy bars?
http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instanc...x/27583276.jpg

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My son used to work there on and off for a few years. Sign of the times as people seem to download films these days. Same with the shops that are disappearing, more people are buying online. Touch of a button and you can compare prices and get a better deal.!

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Love the Mr. Creosote (Monty Python ) picture by the way.!

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Not quite sure about the back.... very tame :D

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Mondays & Wednesdays are an embarrasment. If they insist on carrying on with them maybe they should introduce benefit checks, and while I'm at it stop convicted criminals trading on council markets

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Well, on proper market days there aren't enough people to make a crowd...you could hold a dance in the aisles.

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When I was little in the early seventies I remember Broadway buzzing with people. The. Pelican crossing beep beeping as loads of people crossed the road, the market was heaving and my dad driving round and round the big car park to find a spot (where the Arndale is now ) look at the state of Accy now!

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Yep but it means one more empty eyesore for the town:o When are the powers that be going to get their act together?

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Have a walk around Peel St tomorrow afternoon around 2-00, yeh will probably have it to yerself.;) Sat used to be the main day, when i worked on Market early 60s.:eek:

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Problem is, walk around most other town centres at 2pm tomorrow and they'll be busy, despite the recession and the rise of on-line shopping. That's the worrying thing.

:

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i was considering FCUK Maundy but i believe a company already have that logo taken

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In town early this morning, i noticed some guys taking all the fitments outa the "Currency Converter" Shop across from the O2 shop in town, looks like "Another One Bites The Dust"?:eek:

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Is Currency Converter a type of pawn shop?

It's a sign that times are ultra bad when pawn shops close.
I suppose that they took plenty of goods in, but no-one had the money to buy them back.

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No Margaret it is a shop where you chage currency when going abroad

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Bernies nailed it, i have used it very occasionally. it was usually better rate than travel agents n post office when i have checked.

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Ta - I just thought it was converting goods into currency:o

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Businesses like that have a very short shelf life Bernie, not sure what the powers that can do about it now, the time to take action was the late 80s early nineties not waiting till the town centre is like a ghost town and is filled with dropouts wandering round driving the shoppers away

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I now understand why I was mistaken.
I misread Currency Convertors to mean Cash Convertors
Cash Converters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Currency converters shut, nearest branch Blackburn :(
Annoying cos I used to use it too.

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when i was waiting for the bus tonite looks like someone is opening up the shop between mannings and the cafe on peel street ... they were carrying stuff in .... so thats good news for a change ...

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Another Arndale shop closing down, The card shop next to the empty New Look shop, we noticed this aft.:eek: Gonna be more empty units than open uns in the smallest Arndale ive ever seen.:eek:

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People have to have a reason to come to the town, and the Arndale centre doesn't provide that. On the contrary it's a run down eyesore the corridors of which are used as an actual toilet by many (a social point to do with parenting that deserves a thread of its own).

Arndale was replaced by Amazon. Better choice, better value, no need to go out to see if what you want is in stock, delivery next day to your door. It should be demolished before it goes the same way as the Conservative Club. Like that club it is from a Bygone era.

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Other towns have to compete with the likes of Amazon, but still have quite vibrant town centres, Accrington is unique in as much as we have the left overs from Maundy to overcome;)

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It would appear that A2 financial and professional use is the category for bookies. :rolleyes:

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I heard claires accessories is shutting down:(

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Already has

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Whats the problem. High rents? or just lack of sales.

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A little of both. A town with high unemployement and perpetual low earners in a the middle of a recession with no industry to speak of is always going to struggle to maintain major high street chains.

Towns such as Leigh and Bury have been mentioned on here but Accy can't compete with these as they benefit from the Greater Manchester effect.

Although as I understand it the rents for the Arndale and Broadway are absolutely outrageous.

Perhaps the answer is for Manchester to become part of Greater Accrington? :D

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Not having that at all...

There was nothing wrong with the town before the planners and councillors started mucking about with it.

No need for the Arndale, no need to destroy the outdoor market, no need to move the bus station.

We had a perfectly adequate massive car park close to the heart of the town, just like Skipton, Fleetwood and Bury. We had a variety of market stalls, just like Skipton, Fleetwood and Bury. We had an olde worlde market hall with a plethora of specialist stalls, just like Skipton, Bury and Fleetwood (ok so Skipton is just a covered arcade). We had a choice of fish stalls, tripe stalls, cooked meat stalls like the others.

And unlike those mentioned our market was covered by a bleedin' great see through roof that kept the rain off and still allowed you to see without the need for electric lighting.

Now we have a multi storey that sensible people don't use because it only takes one poor driver to bring the whole car park to a standstill, a market in a wind tunnel where you cant browse without getting thumped in the back or sodden wet through in a spring shower, a white elephant market hall that has a bottleneck entrance on one side, has been totally ruined inside and drunks, drug users and beggars accosting you on the other side, a council that removes seats for old folk to rest their weary bones, uneven pavements that become lakes after rain, a complete lack of town centre cleaning crews and to top it all off they plan to move the bus station to a non-central position....

People always need to buy things...regardless of recession or lack of industry. Big names will not come here because the council have slowly and surely killed the town centre over the last 30 years, nothing to do with recession/industry (Blackburn,Bury, Skipton and Fleetwood have the same recession/industry issues)....and they will nail the coffin shut when they move the bus station too far away from the market for Florrie, Ada and Bertha to walk to the tripe stall because these three ladies are the only ones left who still do their shopping in the town centre.

Then they have the unmitigated cheek to say 'building Whitebirk up will have a detrimental effect on the town centre' and 'lets build a canalside shopping centre in Rishton.'

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Hear! Hear! You wanna become one of our Cllrs? :-)

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Guinness yeh nailed it in one.;)

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The new 35 minute train journey to Manchester (they say 40 but that's from Blackburn) commencing next May will also I fear take a plethora of people away. Why shop here when you can be in Manchester 15 minutes quicker than the bus to Burnley?

I fear the only answer is to begin again. Although it's a vicious circle. With things as they are.....who would buy the land on which a demolished Arndale would lie?

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Hmmm..I guess someone once asked the question...'who would buy a delapidated mill in Oswaldtwistle?'..Answer..someone with vision!

Your original argument concerned lack of cash because of recession, now you suggest that those self same people would be stumping up for the train fare to Manchester and back hoping that they can net enough bargains to make it worthwhile. The only other reason that they would do this is for a pleasurable day out.

Therefore the question that needs addressing is 'what does it take to make Accrington a pleasureable day out'.....it sure as hell aint struggling with a multi storey car park, empty shops, drunks, beggars, lack of seating and wind tunnels.

So..we need a decent market with a variety of stalls, plenty of space to browse, good car parking, a place to shelter in inclement weather that is close enough to the local transport system that a 70 year old woman with two full carrier bags can reach and can attract the 18-30 big spenders......

erm...Accrington circa 1970-80 Q.E.D

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To be fair to them it's very difficult to sort out rubbish that walks about in a drunken or drugged up state ;)

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Just wondering Alvin if Manchester could cope with Maundy :rolleyes:

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I was talking to one of the women on the sweet stall in the market
she was saying how trade had gone down since all the work on the indoor market and the footfall is nowhere near what it was.

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Relocate Maundy to Manchester

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It could be easier to put controls on places that encourage people in drunken and drugged up states to walk about the town centre, reminding them the help is a two way avenue

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The controls are already in place, nobody enforces them :mad:

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Well its about time they were, mind you nobody comes on here these days so we can bend their ear.:rolleyes:

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That don't matter, This was going on when they did come on regular..:rolleyes:

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Oh Hum, one wonders why we have elected members at all, Councillors(of all denominations)who don't listen, or don't want to hear, and the same with our elected member at Westminster, who only listens to Mr. Ed:rolleyes:

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Maundy is closed today, Dorothy has passed away

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RIP Dorothy

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R.I.P. Dorothy, free from pain

Town Centre Changes
 

I was in Accrington yesterday, looking at a couple of places I'm renovating on Warner St. Was my fifth visit to the town, and I had the following outsiders perspective:

1) First visit to Warner St, and I really liked it. Nice shops and shopkeepers. Real character place. Town asset for sure.

2) Free parking in the town is great, but I had to move the car every couple of hours because of some dumb rule, combining with active traffic wardens. If people want to drive into the town, let them do that and stay, instead of moving them on!

3) Accrington strikes me as a dangerous place to walk around. Seems to be a magnet for groups of aggressive down and outs/ substance abusers. I am 6ft 10ins so rarely if ever feel threatened by anyone. I'm uncomfortable wandering around this town though because you never know what people high on something may do - logic and reason play no part so in their decision making process which combines with desperation to make them dangerous. A very high percentage of people I see in Accrington centre are like this relative to other places.

4) re 3) god only knows what drifts around the streets at night.

5) Made my first visit to the Victorian arcade bottom of Warner. What a shambles. Great potential, but ruined by abandoned shops (littered with the debris of former tenants), and what business does exist such as the furniture store seems to have to put up with damp and other building issues due to lack of landlord investment. I can see why no one will ever be drawn to this arcade other than as a shortcut to get from one part of the town to another. Pity because if properly sorted that arcade could be great, and a focal point for the town.

6) Didn't see any police presence anywhere.

7) Saw that ugly building that Pugh auctions sold. Like Arndale it should be demolished and turned into a park. Still amazed someone looked at it and thought "yeah, great potential", or for that matter the town planners who 30 years ago thought "yes, beautiful, really like small windows and slate tile on the building walls, this is the future.....approved".

So I agree with the comments made on this thread about the responsibility for a good chunk of the towns problems being with the council. They've done some things right like the Tesco near the railway and upgrading the infrastructure around that, but there is so much more they could and should do in the town.

On a positive note I met one of my tenants on a building I renovated on St James street. She said she had never considered moving her business into Accrington until she saw the quality of my building and its rental price. She moved her startup business in and is very happy (nice street, great Tesco etc), and has expanded to 4 local people. This is a good example of how creating a quality environment draws people and jobs into the town. Council can and should do this on a far larger scale than I can.

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I was in Accrington Yesterday,

1) 30 or so years ago plenty of Streets and shops similar to what you describe, all wasted by 'progress'.

2) When you get used to the centre you'll find the odd little oasis where you can still park all day without having to move, (or do what the majority seem to do, steal a blue badge and park where you want when you want).

3) Accrington isn't a dangerous place, however some of the human derelicts would have that potential if it wasn't that they seem to be tolerated by the authorities far more than an upright citizen.

4) Follow the Veg' trail that falls out of late night revelers kebabs and you will either find yourself in a doorway that has a multicoloured yawn or else a urine puddle in it, always an indication of the night life's sophistication, though to be fair there seem to be fer-rel folk that aren't house trained all over the Country.

5) Yes the Arcade is a mess, perhaps this could be improved by hiding the empty shops behind the giant posters the Council was proposing?

6) Only time you don't see them driving up and down with their blues & twos going would be when they wander from pub to pub on a Saturday afternoon giving a warm welcome to away fans coming for a Stanley match.

7) Yes it is ugly, perhaps yes, it should be knocked down, but we don't need another park we need either retail or industrial units at a low rent.

You never know you may be the start of an upturn, if others have realised the potential of the town maybe we will get some further investment? The real people of the town would enjoy that.

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I see Accy has yet another poundshop, a huge one, next door to The Calder, walked through the Arndale last week, it is a sad sad site, even the charity shop that was in there for a short time, has now gone, it won't be long before that place is totally empty, it was such a nice, busy place when it was first built, will The Arndale end up being knocked down? Maybe the shops will be turned into flats and we will end up with no town centre in Accrington, I hope not, I would rather shop in Accy than in the town where I have called home for the last 17 years

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I would also prefer to shop in accy n still do virtually daily, but these days only fer certain things, cos theres sod all much apart from fruit n veg @ meat.:eek:

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Just remember everything gets closed down in the name of progress

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Not to the extent we got, Bury 10 miles down the road is still thriving in comparison.;)

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Do they not have a higher population and more money to spend than Accrington has?

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Yeh i would imagine they have a bigger population, but if yeh look around E.Lancs at other towns, many centres are doing far better n us. simple fact.;)

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We are probably better than any of them for the percentage of closed shops - walked through the Arndale yesterday morning, didn't count but it looked as though there were as many vacant shops as open ones.
The more shops close the less attractive the town becomes to shoppers, they go somewhere else, more shops close - will the last one out switch off the lights.

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Thats me point we go quite a few different places n also know Wynonies been around different places to me, we both come to same conclusion i reckon.;)

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There you go 1 new shop open :D

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I know I keep banging on about this, but quite often I go into Leigh for my daily brew and a spot of shopping with Mrs H. It's a similar-sized post-industrial town and like Accy, is sandwiched between two bigger towns - Wigan and Bolton. It has none of the fantastic Victorian architecture that we have or attractive little shopping streets like Warner Street. Despite that, it's always far, far busier than Accy. The market hall is a featureless concrete shed but it's usually packed because it's full of stalls selling things that folk want to buy - no empty spaces for "performance art" here! The shopping centre next door ("Spinningate") is similarly thriving with just one empty shop at the moment.

Leigh isn't just an isolated example either; there are many more similar-sized towns - Chorley's another one - that are all far busier than Accy.

Incidentally, Leigh bus station is smack dab in the middle of the town centre, right next to the market hall and shopping centre. Common sense really isn't it? :rolleyes:

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Spot on about Leigh Wyn its like Regent Street compared to Accy, My other half lives in the next town and I often went shopping with here, in fact she won't even entertain shopping in Accy when she's over, the nearest to doing any shopping over here is Ossy Mills