ARSON ATTACK CAFE RE-OPENS
A popular Wigan eaterie has re-opened following an arson attack.
Eddie Brockley's new millenium was ruined when burglars broke into his Marus Bridge Transport Cafe and set the place alight. The interior was wrecked by smoke and �5,000 worth of frozen food ruined when the power failed. To make matters worse, Eddie was not insured.
But friends have rallied round and over the last few weeks they and Eddie have restored the single storey building. Adding together the materials needed for the refurbishment, the cost of replacing the food, and three week's loss of business, the arson has probably cost him in the region of �11,000.
Eddie was on holiday abroad when disaster struck on Boxing Day evening. A police patrol spotted smoke pouring from the cafe and the fire brigade was called. Investigating officers said there was no question it was arson because two separate fires had been set.
Superstitious staff say that bad luck was brought down on the business when Eddie recently bought a print of a supposedly jinxed painting called The Crying Boy and put it on the cafe wall. Legend has it that fires have a habit of breaking out in places where The Crying Boy is displayed yet the artwork always seems to survive the flames.
So it was in this case, but Eddie dismisses it as a load of hokum. However, he was outvoted by his employees and the painting has now been thrown into a rubbish skip. Opening the 'new' cafe this week Eddie said, "All that stuff about the Crying Boy is nothing more than superstitious twaddle. I wanted to hang it back up complete with it's smoke stains but the staff were having none of it. Anyway the cafe looks fine now and I am hoping for a better start to the year than the ending of the last. I am really indebted to a whole crew of craftsmen friends who gave their services free to help with the refurbishment."
No one has as yet been arrested in connection with the fire, started sometime before 6pm on December 26th.
PROPOSED FENCE ANGERS RESIDENTS
Residents in Platt Bridge are outraged at plans to extend a youth justice centre with security fencing as they claim it
will look like a prison.
People next to the site in Victoria Road say Platt Bridge is already a rundown area with a bad reputation and these proposals will only add to
the problem. They say the 2.4 metre high security fence will be an "absolute monstrosity" which will depreciate the value of houses in the area. Residents have also signed
a petition against plans for the youth justice centre- they claim they have seen enough vandalism, unruly behaviour and mayhem since it was set up in 1991.
Now members
of Wigan's planning commitee are having a site visit to consider the proposals which also include a 22 space car park.
The centre, which was a former
family group home, provides a service for young offenders offering them counselling and support.
But concerned residents fear the site will be turned into a juvenile detention
centre for young offenders.
Wigan council stressed that the extension is for additional office accommodation to provide extra staff and training facilities to the centre.
Mary Appleton, of Millers Lane, said "The centre has been trouble since it opened. Residents on Millers Lane have suffered abuse from gangs around the centre...drinking, drug
taking, loud blaster music and verbal abuse. The proposed fence is a monstrosity and resembles a jail."
Eric Savage of Victoria Road said, "The building at 93 Victoria Road
has been a source of problems for years, including vandalism, unruly behaviour and general mayhem. The proposed fence will be an absolute eyesore. Owners, tenants and the council
have spent vast sums of money updating our properties. The price of properties will suffer. Platt Bridge already has a bad reputation it doesn't deserve. The building will put us
back years."
Coun Eunice Smethurst said, "I welcome the site visit by members of the planning commitee because it may be able to put local residents in a much clearer picture
about the jusice centre. I am aware that residents are concerned about traffic congestion and car parking but if people have fears about the centre being turned into a detention
centre, I will take on board their concerns. People need to be taken seriously."
FEARS FOR JOBS AT HEINZ
Up to 160 jobs could be in jeopardy at Kitt Green's Heinz plant as the company discusses possible plans to sell off it's can making operation.
Despite a successful operation at Kitt Green, workers fear their jobs could soon be on the line if bosses decide to sell off their global can making business.
Heinz bosses would not confirm that they were considering shutting down their can manufacturing arm, but did say that they were reviewing all options.
Alan Featherstone, Heinz's Transport and General Worker's Union representative, said that employees are facing an uncertain future. He explained, "We have 160 people working in the can making department and they would all lose their jobs if it was sold off. We are hopeful that Heinz will leave us alone but there is little we can do because the decision is totally out of our hands. Heinz told us that they are looking at the global can making operations to see whether they are viable or not. At this stage it is just a consideration, I believe...it is simply them thinking whether or not they want to make their own cans or sell off the contract. If we double production and cut costs by half I don't think it will make any difference either way to their decision. We just have to sit here and wait to see what kind of impact this is going to have on us.
"I don't want to scaremonger because this kind of thing is often in the back of people's minds, but at the moment we are just hoping they will leave us alone."
A Heinz spokesman said the company is curently reviewing it's can supplier. He said, "From time to time we look to the supply of cans and can ends. It is simply a review at this stage and nothing more."
Wigan MP Neil Turner said, "it must be very worrying for the 160 people involved. I just hope that before Heinz make any final decision they will negotiate with the workforce, trade unions, the local authority and MPs to see if they can work something out. Jobs at Heinz are reasonably well paid so it would be bad for the local economy if any of them were to go."
WOMAN STOLE FROM KIDS
A woman stole �20,000 from Wigan Play Association and denied hundreds of children places on summer holiday playschemes.
Julie Rutter, 44, stole the cash over two years while she was treasurer of the association-siphoning off cash that should have been distributed round several
Wigan playschemes. Her former friends and fellow volunteers blame Rutter for the cancellation of several holiday events that would have kept children off the streets and out of trouble.
Rutter, of Walters Green Crescent Golborne, had initially denied stealing more than �25,000 of Wigan Metro cash between January 1997 and July last year, but pleaded guilty to stealing the
lesser sum of �20,000 at Bolton Crown Court this week.
The court heard that, as association treasurer, she was entrusted with handing out grants to volunteers to help run various playgroups.
But Rutter, who has previous convictions for stealing from an employer and shoplifting, kept chunks of the money for herself.
Speaking after the hearing, Christine Bryan, Play Association
Secretary, said many youngsters aged from 5 to 14 lost out on events because the thefts meant that money was not available to run them. She said, "The volunteers were running the scheme unpaid,
apart from her. She was getting a good wage out of it. Julie Rutter has deprived a lot of children in Wigan and the surrounding areas of a lot of play opportunities. She has also deprived
several volunteers of the extra training they need in things like first aid and health and safety. They are community run play schemes run by volunteers and the community so we cannot afford
to have somebody take money off us like this."
Rutter was granted unconditional bail to re-appear at Bolton for sentencing on Friday, February 18th.
MAN HELD IN CONNECTION WITH LOUISE MURDER
Murder squad detectives were today (Thurs 27th) quizzing a man over the murder of Louise Sellars.
Darren Ashurst
was stopped and arrested by police on Wednesday night as he drove home to Appley Bridge after a days labouring in Southport. The 25 year-old was being questioned at Wigan police headquarters in
Harrogate Street after spending a night in the cells.
The arrest comes four and a half years after Louise's tragic and violent death. The body of the 15 year old from Chisacre
Drive, was found in fields behind Billinge Hospital in August 1995. She had been beaten and strangled with a tow rope.
Ashurst, a quarry worker from Back Lane, Appley Bridge, was originally arrested
and questioned by detectives little more than a week after Louise's death but was released without charge three days later. He is said by police sources to have been an acquaintance of the victim.
From
a respectable family, Ashurst lives with his hairdresser girlfriend Selina Carrington, his mother Esther and his dad Joe who is said to be seriously ill.
Louise disappeared on the evening of Sunday August
13, after visiting friends in Broadriding Road, only a quarter of a mile away from home. The last reported sighting of her was at around 9.20pm near the Randall's Corner bus stop on Miles Lane.
A major
search was organised when Gary and Elaine Sellars called the police, but it was an ex-officer walking his dog along a remote "lovers lane" in Billinge that made the grim discovery the next morning.
A
murder enquiry was immediately launched and an incident room set up. Calls to the number 0161 856 7083 have continued to come in over the months and years sometimes in floods and sometimes in trickles.
At a press conference Elaine Sellars,(pictured here with Louise's adoptive father Gary) said her daughter was a keen athlete who had recently had trials for Lancashire and
wanted to train as a PE teacher would have put up a struggle.
Much of the evidence was revisited two years ago and fresh door-to-door inquiries made in the area of Billinge around where the body was found.
Last summer after a new fingertip search of the scene, police said they had found a number of items that would be sent for forensic examination. Advances in DNA testing also gave the inquiry fresh impetus.
It was also reported last August that a red rose had been placed on the spot where the body had been found, on each anniversary of Louise's death. Police thought the flowers might have been put there as
an act of conscience by the murderer and the most recent was analysed for forensic evidence.
Mr and Mrs Sellars were informed of Ashurst's arrest just moments after it happened by officers visiting their home.
News of the labourer's arrest was also broken to his family.
KEVIN IS STREET CLEANER FO THE YEAR
A Metro roadsweeper has an extra spring to his step this week as he pushes his barrow through Ashton.
Kevin Mulkeen whose original nomination delighted colleagues, clinched the title of 'Greater Manchester Street Cleaner of the Year' at a glittering ceremony at the JJB stadium.
45 year-old bachelor Kevin, from Bryn picked up the accolade at the Tidy Britain Group's North West Silver Broom Awards designed to celebrate those who go 'an extra mile' in keeping their environment safe and clean. He received a cash prize, certificate and trophy.For more than a quarter of a century, come rain, hail or snow, he has swept the streets of Ashton and still kept smiling. His quarter of a century of hard work and happy demeanour were recognised by the town.
Ashton Community Forum, set up to boost civic pride, put his name forward and were over the moon when he ended up the winner. Spokesman Ian Winstanley added, "It's thoroughly deserved is out there in all weathers keeping the place looking half decent."
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