A WORD FROM CAZ
Thank you to all those regular readers who have been so patient with me over the last few months. As some of you already know, the reason for me not updating the page as regularly as I used to is that my dear Dad has been ill since January, and he is no better. He has been in the Infirmary at Wigan for the last five weeks. Please bear with me until things get something like normal again.
Also I have had to try to get my head around FTP for transferring my files to my web host. I used a very simple file manager to upload them before but for some reason Fortune City have withdrawn this service. So all the 'thickos' like myself have had to learn a new skill! Fingers crossed that it works!!
CORRIE STARS MATCH OF THE DAY
Wigan's Coronation Street actress Jennifer James has wed former co-star Lee Boardman.
Friends, family and a string of TV star guests gathered at Manchester Town Hall to watch 23 year-old Jennifer (Geena Gregory in the soap) tie the knot with Lee, who starred as villain
Jez Quigley.
The lovestruck couple decided to get married on FA Cup Final Day to keep their big day low profile.
But as the newlyweds posed for photographs after the ceremony,
some guests,including co-stars Michael LeVell (Kevin Webster) and Orrell actress Georgia Taylor (Toyah Battersby) trooped to a nearby pub to watch the second half of the game on television.
Jennifer, from Ashton, wore a full length ivory dress for the wedding. Friend and co-star Jacqueline Pirie, who plays Linda Baldwin, was bridesmaid.
The couple, who have signed over
all picture rights to Hello magazine, met early last year on the set of the Granada soap.
They got engaged just four months later during a short breakaway in the Lake District.
Speaking
shortly after her engagement, Jennifer said, "Of course it's a passionate relationship. Lee is really sexy. He's the most gorgeous romantic man I have ever met.
"Though Lee and I have only
been together a short time, this is not something I am doing flippantly."
Lee, 28, added "I just knew I'd met the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."
The couple were
spotted househunting for their marital home in London at the end of last year, which has fuelled speculation that she may quit the soap to pursue her career in the capital.
BILLINGE HOSPITAL TO BE IMPROVED
Wigan's maternity hospital is to be improved, thanks to a cash boost announced by Health Secretary, Alan Milburn.
The unit based at Billinge Hospital, is set to receive a share of a new £100m fund.
The extra money has been welcomed by Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust , which hopes to move the service to Wigan's Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in a few years.
This will be Phase 4 of the hospital's £24.6m modernisation programme which will include a state-of-the-art A&E department.
There will be four levels equipped with theatres, to give the best response to acute admission pressures.
The new mternity unit will be located directly above the new emergency room.
The old town centre grammar school will be converted into a modern out-patient which will transfer 80,000 patients a year from the Infirmary.
The new funding, announced by Mr Milburn aims to provide new single room provision providing privacy for families, more comfortable rooms with TVs and telephones, and room for fathers to stay, especially where babies need special care.
Mr Milburn said there will also be 2,000 midwives by 2005 which will ensure women will have access to a midwife dedicated to them.
He said, "Choice for women cannot be there when there are shortages of midwives. Continuity of care cannot be there when there are too many variations in standards and in access to services. Modern maternity services are the foundation for giving each and every child in our country the very best start in life."
Director of nursing at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust, Tony Halsall, said, "We very much welcome this extra funding because it will help us to continue in improving maternity services across Wigan."
POLICE STEP UP SEARCH FOR PETROL BOMBER
Wigan police have this week stepped up their appeal for witnesses to a petrol bomb attack on a Wigan pub, while a
family of five slept inside.
A Molotov cocktail was smashed against the front of the Bricklayers Arms in Hallgate as manager Dave Price, his partner and their three young children were upstairs.
Detectives have described the attack as a 'serious incident' and are urging any witnesses or people with information to contact them urgently.
The children, who sleep in rooms at the front of the
building, were woken by the blast and smell of burning at around 2am on Tuesday April 24th.
Nicola, 13,Charlotte,also 13, and 10 year-old Dean rushed into Dave and partner Karen's room to raise the alarm.
The 38 year-old landlord looked out of the window and saw the wall and pavement ablaze. He said, "It was frightening to think what might have happened if the fire had taken hold and the kids had not been
woken so quickly by the noise and smell. This was a totally malicious attack."
Fragments of the incendiary device have been examined and Wigan CID have had a number of enquiries but nothing which has led
to the arrest of the arsonists.
Det Insp Steve Crimmins, of Wigan's CID said, "We are reiterating this appeal for information and would like to speak to anyone who either saw the attack, or who knows who
is responsible to come forward."
GOLBORNE'S HERO HONOURED
Golborne has remembered it's favourite son - by naming the new town square in his honour.
Peter Kane Square was opened by the mayor of Wigan on Thursday, in memory of the outstanding boxer who was world flyweight champion from 1938 to 1943.
A poll carried out earlier in the year revealed the overwhelming choice of the people to name the square in honour of Kane, a former local blacksmith who died aged 73 in 1991.
The £120,000 square at the junction of High Street and Heath Street was designed by Wigan Council's environmental planners, and includes an open paved area with new seats, stone walls and planting. It's centrepiece is a unique clock reflecting aspects of the town's history, designed by local artists Brian Taylor and Tony Staunton-Unsworth.
The square occupies the site of the former New Inn pub which was knocked down in the early 1980s but since then the centre has lacked a real focal point.
Mr John Sloane, director of planning and development for Wigan Council said, "The council is delighted to have been able to create this striking new public space in the heart of Golborne.
Regenerating our smaller town centres has long been a prime aim of the council, and this scheme provides a real focal point for the centre of Golborne for the first time. The new clock with it's echoes of the town's history will be a permanent landmark of which local residents and shoppers will hopefully be very proud."
Funding for the square has come from a variety of sources, including Wigan Council, the Coalfield Challenge regeneration project, the landfill tax credit scheme and European 'Rechar' money.
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