I take your point, but I think it could well have started a few years before that with the abolition of local councils. Last 10 years or have really been a slippery slope, don't think its just Leigh in fairness.

no owd cock, I agree, it's not! But the cards were certainly marked for pit towns like ours when Be'elzebub's daughter came to power on that date in 1979. 31 years on and some towns and villages have never really recovered.

But the Home Counties are doing well so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Really???
I have a mate in Berkshire who's just gone @rse upards and another in Bedfordshire who is on his @rse running care in the private sector!!! - being a nurse in the NHS employee it's just a matter of time before we get it!! I concede that's only 2 examples - you may have a wider knowledge on that than me, but reading the news would suggest to me differently.
Granted, those counties were spared the calamatous cything of the Thatch government - (if you exclude those home counties with car plants and steel works), to the same extent of the Northern, Welsh, Scottish, Kent and North Eastern coalfields!
No, our days were numbered then - swings, roundabouts or slides are irrelevant!
But I'm a raving leftist socialist pinko - you probably guessed that by now!!!

There is money in Leigh, its just those with it choose to spend it elsewhere because our own town centre is full of chavs, smackrats, drunks, beggars, and migrants.

Clear them out (and dont particularly care how), get some decent facilites in there (simple things like ample parking that isnt policed by facists, and some decent toilets that are not run by McDonalds) and folk might take it seriously.

1974 when leigh & surrounding area lost the power to fight for new buisnesses to come in to the area & replace all the old heavy industries that were closing down.

is there a town or a city in britain that dosen't have a few pound shops?

Whats happening in our former industrial towns is turning people right wing.
I never buy anything of value in Leigh anymore, I sometimes look at the fantastic historical architecture around Bradshawgate, glance at the scum around town, observe the bargain shops and wonder how can we get our town back again.
Community has gone, pride has gone and people just watch whilst it happens.
We have no identity anymore and nobody seems to care.

She is the best leader this country has ever had, can't believe lazy miners and familes are still moaning, can't wait for Cameron to be PM and sort out the lazy slobs that do nothing but spounge from the state.

She is the best leader this country has ever had, can't believe lazy miners and familes are still moaning, can't wait for Cameron to be PM and sort out the lazy slobs that do nothing but spounge from the state.

get the comedian a spotlight....you are joking right?