24 December 2009

Pit legacy to be remembered at new Bickershaw

New roads being built as part of the £19M redevelopment of Bickershaw Colliery are to be named after former miners who worked at the pit.

Wigan Council, site owner NWDA and the agency's contractor, Birse Civils Ltd, said today it would be a ‘fitting tribute’ to the legacy of the former Leigh pit, which closed in 1992 after 115 years.

The 56 acre site is now being reclaimed and will be transformed into 650 eco-friendly homes, business units and a 40-berth canalside marina.

Wigan Council Leader Peter Smith said: “Generations of Leigh men, women and even children worked at Bickershaw and in some cases tragically gave their lives. We have been looking at ways to commemorate the human legacy of the site and naming the roads after former miners is just one way of doing this.”

Local groups and the community will be consulted over any possible names.

The NWDA has contracted a package of infrastructure works with Birse totalling almost £12 million which is funded by the Homes and Communities Agency under its National Coalfields Programme.

Work on the site, including the construction of a spine road, is progressing well despite the poor weather. It is due to be completed in 2011.

Contractors Birse are inviting local residents to visit their site offices to see first hand what the infrastructure scheme is about and to ask questions of the site team. The next open morning is on 13 January and they will then take place every second Wednesday in the month.

Lord Smith added: ““The Bickershaw project is an example of some of the fantastic regeneration work taking place in our borough at the moment.
“We are really pleased that work has started on the first phase of the project which will create a vibrant new economic future for the site. In the current economic climate it couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Project manager Colin Abbott of Birse Civils said: “We are very pleased to be working in Leigh for the next eighteen months and want to be good neighbours to the local community. There’s an open invitation for residents to drop in to one of our open days and see what’s going on.”