Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust logo
Annual Review & Report 2005/06

To read the review, you can either scroll down the page, or use the chapter headings to jump to a particular section.

Image: Lifestyle was launched in 2006Contents

► Overview & Introduction

► Milestones & Highlights 1
Libraries Heritage & Information

Library Service
The Heritage Service
Wigan Pier

► Milestones & Highlights 2
Sport & Healthy Living

Active Life
Sports Development
Active Living Team

► Milestones & Highlights 3
Community Regeneration Services

Arts & Festivals
Young People
Community Regeneration
Play

► Milestones & Highlights 4
Environmental Management & Sustainability

Parks & Countryside
Playing Fields
Haigh Hall and Estate
Grounds Maintenance

► Milestones & Highlights 5
Corporate Information

Corporate Support
Figures
Employee Information

Message from the Chair of Trustees
Jacqui Boardman

"Welcome to the third annual review of Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust.

It has been a year of putting plans into action for the Trust. The value of the strategic work that has been ongoing in the first two years of operation can now been seen, in improvements to both services and facilities. Further revisioning work will continue in forthcoming years in order to develop the leisure and cultural potential of the borough.

The Board of Trustees has welcomed Councillor Eunice Smethurst, who was born and bred in Wigan. Eunice became a Councillor in 1996 and is heavily involved in community work as well as being non-exec director for Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust. She is passionate about social inclusion, one of the items high on the Trust’s agenda.

I would like to thank all of the Trustees, who give up their time freely, for their continued commitment to the organisation. Their hard work, expertise and enthusiasm is welcomed and appreciated.

In the year ahead there are likely to be further challenges; change and development is inevitable to continue to improve the leisure and culture product for everyone in the borough to experience and enjoy."

Message from the Chief Executive
Rodney Hill

"I am delighted to introduce the third Annual Review & Report for the Trust.

The year has focused on the implementation of many of the strategies set out in the last financial year. Revisioning work is well under way on Libraries & Information, Sport & Physical Activity and the Wigan Pier Quarter, with certain elements of these projects now coming to fruition. All of this work has continued to focus on the underlying aim of our vision ‘Getting Wigan Active’.

The investment made in these key areas is improving the quality of service provision and is driving forward the achievement of core objectives, such as participation.

In other areas, further work is being done to set out long-term strategies. The Heritage vision will enable better interpretation of our many heritage assets of which local people are so proud. The Arts Strategy and Cultural Manifesto will add further focus and create opportunities for local people to get involved.

Creating opportunities for all remains at the forefront of the Trust’s activities. Two Active Life sports centres were IFI (Inclusive Fitness Initiative) accredited during 2005/06 and the Trust achieved the Level 1 of the Equality Standard for Local Government.

The year saw significant growth of work within local communities. Projects such as these are only achievable through good relationships with all our partners. I would like to pay tribute to: the Council; the Cultural Partnership; the Board of Trustees, for their energy and focus; plus all of our staff for their ongoing hard work and enthusiasm.

The pace over the past two years has been rapid and we have achieved a great deal. However, there is so much more to do and we all look forward to the further journey with relish. I commend this report to your attention."


Introduction
Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust (WLCT) was formed in 2003. The organisation is a charitable trust working on behalf of Wigan Council to manage and support Leisure and Cultural facilities, initiatives and events for over 300,000 residents across the Wigan borough.

WLCT is sustained by a combination of external funding and income generation, including an annual grant from Wigan Council (£15.3M in 05/06). Over £2.2M was funded from external sources in 05/06. The Trust is a registered charity and a social enterprise, which means that any surplus income generated must be invested in improving facilities and services for the people of the borough.

The Trust’s activities cover a broad range of cultural and leisure pursuits. A trading arm exists for services that are deemed not to be charitable. These are the catering services at Haigh, Leisure Venues and Grounds Maintenance. Each of these services come under the Wigan Leisure and Culture Enterprises banner.

A Board of Trustees has the legal responsibility for ensuring that the Trust is managed appropriately.

Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust provides a wide range of services including the following:
Libraries, Heritage & Information Services Sport & Healthy Living Services Community Regeneration Services Environmental Services Corporate Support Services
Libraries Leisure Centres & Swimming Pools Children’s play areas and play activities Parks & Countryside All support services including Finance, Human Resources & Marketing
Care services for those not able to access mainstream library service Profiles Gyms Arts & Festivals Sports Pitches Tourist Information Centre
Heritage services inc. The History Shop Sports Development Community & Youth Development Grounds Maintenance Leisure Venues
Wigan Pier Active Living Turnpike Gallery Haigh Hall & Country Park (inc. Golf complex)

 

 

 

 

 Cemeteries & Crematoria

 

Since the Trust was formed, the executive management team has been focused on revisioning key areas to provide high quality, modern services.

The overall vision for the Trust, ‘Getting Wigan Active’, is a 5-10 year programme primarily focused on increasing participation levels across the community and encouraging good citizenship. At this stage, revisioning focuses on three key areas:

• The Wigan Pier Quarter
• Sport & Physical Activity
• Libraries & Information

Previous under-investment in a number of areas is now being addressed. In addition, the Trust’s investment fund supports major capital projects to enable improvements and new facilities for the future.

Over the next ten years, Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust will be working hard to ensure that the people of Wigan Borough are as active as possible:
• Physically active
• Mentally and creatively active
• Active in the community and as citizens

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Milestones & Highlights 1
Libraries Heritage & Information

Image: Ashton LibraryLibrary Service
Wigan Borough has 16 libraries: 2 main libraries, 4 area libraries and 10 branch libraries plus 3 mobiles as well as a schools and community service.

In 2005/06 Wigan’s Library Conference unveiled a new ten-year vision to improve the quality of the library services across the borough, backed by its new patron, author and broadcast journalist, Stuart Maconie. Over £300,000 was allocated to libraries revisioning work to implement large-scale improvement plans.

A number of key initiatives were introduced including: increasing opening hours, improving ICT (computer) facilities and providing a series of programmed events in an attempt to attract an extra 110,000 visits. In addition, over £80,000 was invested in new stock materials.

Library opening hours were extended an extra 50 hours per week in response to feedback from the public, with a view to encouraging greater participation by non-users. The Sunday morning session at Ashton has worked particularly well encouraging growth of new members.

The branding for the library service ‘explore’ was rolled out in each of the libraries and mobile libraries to provide a more welcoming and user-friendly environment. Improvements were made to layout, signage and information in order to help customers explore their local library.

A strong programme of events was introduced with 1,600 sessions taking place for children and young people, ranging from under 5’s to homework clubs. In total over 20,000 children and young people attended these sessions during the course of the year. A number of learning initiatives for adults were also implemented, with over 500 people accessing courses ranging from basic IT to flower arranging. Each of these was geared towards encouraging people to learn and take a more active role in their community.

The first national on-line face for public libraries was launched in October with the introduction of the People’s Network online services. A new 24/7 question and answer service (Enquire), a personalised Internet search engine (Discover) and enhanced access to online services linked to reading (Read) are now available.

The People’s Network has helped to move Wigan’s libraries into the 21st Century by using the latest broadband connections to provide free access to the Internet on 184 terminals across the borough. Library users are now able to reserve and renew books on-line.

In March 2006 Ashton library was officially re-opened to the public following a £171,000 total refurbishment. The investment included: full redecoration complementing the architecture of the original Carnegie library; signage improvements; purpose built shelving; computer facilities; new furnishings and study areas. The refurbishment has resulted in significant amounts of new users and visits have increased in the first 6 months of re-opening when compared to the previous year by 8,821 (28%).
From a national perspective the official Public Library Standards rating stood at 8 out of 10 with significant improvements in the two that are not met: visits and opening hours.

A new library facility opens in Platt Bridge in November 2006 and future ambitions are to secure funding from Central Government to relocate the library in Wigan Town Centre to a more accessible location, as well as refurbishing The Turnpike Centre which houses Leigh library.

Other highlights include:
• The ‘Stepping Stones to Good Mental Health’ initiative was launched at Leigh Library in May 2005. The aim of the scheme is to provide people across the borough with the opportunity to get advice and information about mental health issues from their local library.
• In March 2006 the Trust teamed up with Wigan Council and Wigan Athletic Football Club to take part in the Premier League Reading Stars scheme with children from four local primary schools. The scheme is aimed at encouraging people of all ages to read more books and access their local libraries. Wigan Athletic nominated club captain Matt Jackson as their Reading Champion, one of 20 Premiership players nationally to take part. His nominated book Roald Dahl’s ‘Danny – Champion Of The World’ formed part of a Premier League book list used to inspire families across the country to read.
• External funding has been secured for two projects, the first is working with Children in Care and second is delivering IT courses for beginners in the libraries closest to Wigan’s geographical areas with the highest levels of deprivation.

The Heritage Service
In 2005/06 a new Heritage Services Manager was appointed with responsibility for sites across the borough, including: The History Shop, Leigh Archives and Wigan Pier as well as overseeing the flagship publication for Heritage Services; Past Forward.
In October 2005 work started on the creation of a new vision for heritage in Wigan. “To engage people in their own and Wigan’s heritage through creative management and use of archives, collections and heritage resources”.

The vision will look to ‘Get Wigan Active’ by empowering individuals, community groups and societies with heritage interests to get involved in their own heritage. By improving access to heritage sites, museums and collections, and generating wider usage within the local community, the service aims to increase heritage participation throughout the borough.
The vision also focuses on customers and improving service standards for the public across all Heritage facilities. As part of this, a Customer Charter was introduced detailing all aspects of the service from visitor services to collections and facilities.
Running alongside the visioning work is the proposed development of The History Shop -the former Victorian library where George Orwell once researched ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’.
A bid has been submitted for HLF grant -aid to create better physical access, more exhibition space and provide study facilities for local historians. It would also allow a portion of Heritage Service’s extensive library of 30,000 historic photographs to be more widely available on the internet. If successful, the project will move the facility forward to become a modern, accessible ‘hub’ for heritage in the borough.
The History Shop has had another successful year in 05/06:

• From March to August 2005, a fascinating travelling exhibition ‘Routes to Your Roots’ was on display from the National Coal Mining Museum. The exhibition was supplemented by local material and lunchtime lectures on the history of coal mining in the area.

• Wigan and Atherton Photographic societies hosted their annual Feast of Photography exhibition throughout September. This year’s winner was Eddie Prescott with ‘Winter’s Mist Over Bradburn’s Farm’.

• The Changing Face of Wigan ran from October 2005 to February 2006 and explored how and why Wigan has changed over the years, from the early 19th century to the present day.

• Work has also gone into developing and supporting the ‘Friends of Wigan Heritage Service’ organisation. Continuing their work on developing study resources for the services, like the indexes for the local census returns 1841 & 1861, and currently the registers from the Wigan Cemetery. The emphasis in 2005-06 has been developing the volunteer role and the Friends running of the Family History Workshops for first time genealogists.

Wigan Pier
Early in 2005, detailed plans were unveiled to the general public on the regeneration of Trencherfield Mill and the surrounding area – to be known as the Wigan Pier Quarter. The redevelopment aims to breathe new life into the area and give borough residents a cultural quarter on a par with other major towns and cities.

Plans include the Trencherfield Mill Steam Engine sitting alongside a new heritage-themed attraction. Also on-site will be speciality shops, pubs and a restaurant. A new hotel will be built and major landscaping will take place to improve the look of and access to the canal-side. The first phase of the Cultural Quarter will be complete in 2007.

The Museum of Memories, Mill at the Pier and Café closed in April 2005, to make way for developers to start work.

On the opposite side of the Wigan Pier site, the learning team had a busy year as they continued to develop links with hard-to-reach groups through their outreach work in the community. One such event was the reminiscence sessions held as part of the VE/VJ Day 60th anniversary celebrations in July 2005.

Learning Officers delivered sessions for elderly residents and WWII veterans in the Blackpool area to mark the end of the largest conflict in history. They displayed a variety of WWII items and memorabilia, such as gas masks, ration books and metal helmets at St Mary’s Catholic College. A party was held in the school hall which was set out as a 1940's tea dance.

An art-based project entitled ‘Open Minds’ took place with Aim Higher students from three Wigan-based schools. The students worked in the museum on a variety of research-based creative activities and ended the year with a performance at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester on the subject of the 1908 Maypole Colliery disaster (supported by the Wigan Pier Theatre Company).

Another successful project took place in partnership with Wigan and Leigh College whereby family group visits were organised to encourage learning together for young children and their parents.

Day visitors and educational groups continued to enjoy The Way We Were museum and visits to the Trencherfield Mill Steam Engine throughout the course of the year. Attendance figures were reached, targets and standards maintained with quality and customer accreditations continued.

Other developments included the ongoing expansion of the volunteer network and the opportunity to create an apprenticeship in the engineering environment of the engine house.

Wigan Pier Theatre Company
The youth theatre groups run by the Wigan Pier Theatre Company continued their success during 2005/06. Eight groups now exist with the formation of a new group in Swinley as well as a number of community theatre and partnership projects. ‘Down Memory Lane’, ‘Haigh Fever’ and ‘Say the Word’ were key highlights of the year.

A cast of local amateur talent aged from eight to 88 worked on Down Memory Lane. The concept was inspired by a national arts project, ‘Whispers of Britain’, which celebrated regional dialects. The production resulted in a hugely-successful theatrical performance at Formby Hall in June 2005 with over 250 people in attendance. The group plan to produce more and more performances over the coming years. Haigh Fever took place the following month. This project, a collaboration between Wigan Council’s Study Support team and the Theatre Company was granted £20,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to bring it to life. The performance took the form of a tour around Haigh Hall where visitors met past owners and saw scenes from their lives played out.

On the project, the theatre company worked with children from four local high schools, who played the major characters in the production and were fortunate to work with Julie McKiernan a professional scriptwriter from Leigh. Say the Word, a theatre piece highlighting the issues of sex education for young people, was produced in conjunction with the Arts for Health steering group, Positive Futures, Wigan & Leigh College, Brook and the Teenage Pregnancy education section.

In December 2005 the Theatre Company was awarded a grant of £34,000 from The Coalfields Regeneration Trust to continue its work on the Higher Folds estate in Leigh for an additional three years. The previous year, Coalfield had awarded the theatre company a Best Practice Grant of £4,000 to test pilot a youth theatre for young people in the Higher Folds Community Centre. This resulted in the performance of ‘A Higher View’, a play based on the Higher Folds estate and the people that live there, as part of the ‘Words ’05’ literary festival. The youth theatre has since performed at conferences such as the Tenants Association Conference and The Arts Factor event at St Joseph’s Hall in Leigh.

Another youth theatre has now been set up and work has started on a major piece of theatre written by a local professional playwright, providing an opportunity for the community to work together. A further performance will be created for 2008. The Theatre Company have also delivered heritage outreach work which has included Victorian Schoolrooms and drama workshops in schools.

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Milestones & Highlights 2
Sport & Healthy Living

Image: Greater Manchester Mini GamesActive Life
Sport and Healthy living is a key service area working towards the ‘Getting Wigan Active’ vision. There are three strands to this service: Active Life, who run the borough leisure centres and swimming pools; Active Living, who lead on a range of projects in the community to get people back into exercise; and the Sports Development Unit who predominantly work with children and young people to provide coaching sessions and activities.

The overall aim is to increase participation in sport and physical activity amongst residents by improving access to sport and leisure facilities and creating more opportunities to take part at a local level. The Trust also provide a range of coaching and instruction programmes.

The ‘Lifestyle’ scheme was launched on 1 April 2006. This scheme is aimed at getting a large proportion of the community more active, and was a follow-up to the successful ‘Freestyle’ scheme launched in 2005. Freestyle, a free swimming scheme for people aged 16 and under, aimed to encourage children to swim more often. The original target to sign-up 20,000 young people was exceeded by 3,000 by the end of 2004/2005.

Free swimming for the Over 60s is now included as part of the Lifestyle Scheme. Targets are to get 45,000 people in the borough signed up by the end of the 2006/2007 financial year.

Further improvements have been made to the boroughs gym facilities. Howe Bridge Sports Centre had a £58,000 investment to extend its Profiles gym creating a free weights area; fitting an air-conditioning system to keep users cool as they exercise and making the facility more easily accessible and user-friendly.

Hindley Leisure Centre has been fitted with a purpose built ‘Movement Room’ following a £70,000 investment. This includes a wooden semi-sprung floor making it the perfect venue for aerobics classes and circuit training.

In addition, a £70,000 investment has transformed an under-used cricket facility at Robin Park into a new multi-games hall – ‘The Powerade Multi-Games Hall’ catering for cricket, netball, football and health & fitness sessions.

Work has now started on Leigh Sports Village which will be home to a new stadium, athletics arena, playing pitches and changing facilities; Active Life will manage ‘Leigh Indoor Sports Centre’ a brand new state-of the-art gym facility and swimming pool. Another proposal will see Wigan International Pool in Wigan Town Centre rebuilt as part of a Private Finance Initiative project.

Other highlights include:
In April one of the most prestigious professional boxing matches came to Robin Park Sports Arena. ‘The Wigan Warrior’ Lee Blundell’s clash with Simeon Cover for the vacant British Masters Middleweight championship title.

In September Robin Park hosted the British Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships for the third time. Young people from across the borough were invited to witness Britain’s largest and most prestigious gymnastics event, held annually since 1896, for free.

Boxing hero and patron of the Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI) Michael Watson MBE, unveiled Robin Park Sports Centre as an official IFI facility on Friday 2 September. The former Commonwealth Middleweight Champion was the special guest for an afternoon of sports activities designed to showcase inclusive sport at its best. The IFI is a Sport England funded project that supports facilities across the country to make improvements to access, fitness equipment, staff training and sports development. The IFI aims to make fitness suites and facilities more freely available to people with disabilities.

As well as improving the profile of Robin Park and Hindley Sport Centres, the IFI recognition enabled the Trust was to employ Wigan Borough’s first ever ‘activator’ to work in the community, encouraging people with disabilities to take part in sport and physical activity.

Sports Development
Wigan Sports Development in partnership with the Specialist Sports Colleges and Greater Manchester Sports Partnership employed two full time multi-skill coaches in December 2004. The coaches have continued to work in targeted schools delivering high quality physical activity gaining recognition throughout the region for their high standard of coaching delivery. The coaches established extra-curricular clubs to support young people in making the transition from schools to community settings. Statistics and feedback from schools, parents and young people have been excellent and reinforced the success of the initiative.

In November 2005, an additional Community Coach joined the Sports Development Team through funding from Community Safety. The Coach worked in schools and identified hotspots within the community, targeting young people at risk of anti-social behaviour. A notable success has been the coaching delivered at Platt Lane. Over 40 young people have attended evening sessions on a regular basis. In collaboration with community safety and the police, statistics have shown a reduction in crime in the surrounding area whilst sports activities are taking place.

The Wigan Sports Awards were held in February 2006. Over 70 nominations were received from over sixteen different sports. The event saw over 200 of the borough’s finest Coaches, Clubs, Volunteers and Performers come together to a gala dinner for the presentation of the 6 awards. The event is designed to reward and recognise the effort and dedication to sport in the borough by all those individuals and clubs nominated. The evening also highlights the outstanding achievements of the borough's Sports Performers. All the winners went on to represent the borough at the Greater Manchester Awards.

It has been a successful year both on and off the rugby field for the Wigan & Leigh Rugby League Service Area. Wigan Sports Development appointed a full time Service Area Coordinator in December 2005. The appointment was a culmination of hard work from the voluntary sector and is funded in a unique partnership between the Rugby Football League and the Trust. The impact was instant and the Service Area had a record number of players progressing to regional and national honours.

Sports Development increased opportunities for young people with a disability to take part in sporting activities. The team co-ordinated and delivered a full community disability programme in four focus sports - Football, Athletics, Multisports, and Swimming. Through consultation with the Disability Sports Forum, (a voluntary community group) a programme of dedicated disability sessions together with inclusive sporting clubs open to all abilities of children & young people have proved a successful balance.

Wigan took a record breaking 324 young people to represent the borough at the Greater Manchester Youth Games. The team brought home 58 medals in total - 20 Gold, 20 Silver and 18 Bronze. New Age Curling was a new event for young people with a disability and Wigan proudly achieved the Gold medal. Furthermore, the young people that represented Wigan were also selected to represent England. The team worked throughout the year create a sustainable sporting infrastructure and this paid off with a record number of volunteer coaches giving their time and effort to support the team.

Active Living Team
The Active Living team are responsible for helping people become more physically active within their local community. The team provides a range of programmes and opportunities for people to become more active across the borough.

Successful schemes ran throughout 2005/6 include:

• Steps to Health – 1,494 people were referred onto the exercise referral scheme. The adherence rate was 59%.

• Next Steps – Approx 100 classes took place every week, including sessions for parents/carers and their under 5’s through the Sure Start programme and a wide variety of activity sessions for adults. New sessions included an expansion of Tai Chi, Pilates and Physibodies, (parents and children’s sessions). These took place in a variety of community and leisure venues across the borough. The number of visits in total last year was 39,254.

• Well @ Work - The Well at Work pilot in Wigan is working with H.J Heinz and HMP/YOI Hindley to discover what changes in and around the workplace can effect positive differences in employees’ health and achieve a lasting improvement to their lifestyles.
The project officially started in September 2005 and the co-ordinator commenced in January 2006. A baseline questionnaire has been completed by staff in both workplaces and will be repeated at the end of the project to measure any changes. The purpose of the questionnaire was to gain information regarding, behaviour, knowledge, general health, mediators of behaviour change and job satisfaction. Health checks took place with employees who were also given lifestyle advice. Interventions planned for the future include: a pedometer challenge, chef demonstrations, men’s health awareness and improving the variety and choice in the staff canteens.

• Training – The team have trained 66 people last year on physical activity courses. In addition, the Moving More Often initiative saw over 85 care staff receive training, so that they can deliver gentle exercise courses at residential care homes across the borough.

• LEAP – 2005/6 was the final year of the national LEAP project. The team ran a range of interventions and opportunities for people over the age of 50. Approximately 11,000 visits were made to the LEAP project activities. These included: sports and activity tasters and courses, Healthwalks programme and the Senior Peer Mentoring programme which involves participants training to help other new participants.

• Food and Physical Activity project – Working with Sure Start and Ashton, Leigh & Wigan PCT, the Food and Physical Activity team provided healthy eating and physical activity opportunities for parents/carers and 0-5 year olds. The team were funded to provide activities in five of the Sure Start areas. Over 1,892 visits were made by adults and 6,886 by children under 5 to the programmes. This work is expanding to cover all areas of Sure Start in 2006/7.

• The Fit 4 Fun Academy is aimed at young people 8 - 13 years, who do not regularly participate in sport or physical activity, are overweight, or at risk of becoming overweight due to poor diet and low levels of activity. Through collaborative work with a number of key organisations, including dietetics and psychology, support on weight management is now available to children and their families within the Wigan Borough. The programmes provide a mechanism for the prevention, treatment and monitoring of overweight/obese children and young people, and work in line with both Wigan’s SHAPE Strategy and Healthy Weight Strategy. In 2006 we were successful in receiving funding (£35,000) from Wigan's Children's Fund to support the continued delivery of the Fit 4 Fun Academy into 2006/2007.

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Milestones & Highlights 3
Community Regeneration Services

Image: Haigh Music FestivalArts & Festivals
Arts activity throughout the borough has continued to grow over the past few years.
In 2005/06, the Arts and Festivals team started to consult with Wigan Council and various community arts groups to create a strategy for the borough from 2006 to 2012. The aim of the strategy is to support the development of arts activity, with a view to improving the quality of life for people through increased participation and cultural expression.

A key event in the year’s calendar was ‘The Arts Factor’ held in October 2005. Wigan and Leigh’s foremost artistic talents and enthusiastic community groups showcased their work at this event held at St Joseph’s Hall in Leigh. It was an active celebration of the positive effect art has on the community and incorporated a wide range of artistic genres ranging from: dance, film, community drama and visual arts; portraying the vibrancy and diversity of the arts scene locally.

There is now a regular programme of key festivals throughout the year. A new introduction to this in March 2006 was ‘Dance Fusion’.

Wigan’s first ever dance festival, a joint initiative from Arts & Festivals and the Active Living Team, started with a sell-out event at Lowton Civic Hall on 18 March with over 350 attendees. It continued with a week of activities including dance workshops and free taster sessions across the borough. Its success has led this to be incorporated into the calendar for 2006/07.

Highlights for the year include:
• The Words 05 annual literary festival opened the 2005/06 festival season in April with poetry, prose and performances throughout the borough.
• Support was given to the Famine for Freedom event run by The Vivace Trust. A performance took place at Robin Park in April with over 1,000 children from 27 local schools involved.
• Garden of Delights a fun-based festival combining street art and green activism took place in Manchester featuring ‘On Our Door Step’ — a disability arts project involving groups from across the borough. Over 50,000 people attended this event over three days.
• Arts For All, previously part of Arts in the Park at Haigh, held a stand alone event in July showcasing community and voluntary arts across the borough.
• The Haigh Festival, previously part of Arts in the Park provided a showcase for over 30 local indie music bands and was watched by 5,000 people. An event run in partnership with Wigan Music Collective.
• Hot on the Streets took place in Atherton, Leigh and Wigan.
• In August, the third Wigan One World (WOW) Multicultural Festival attracted more than 4,000 visitors to Mesnes Park.
• A Disability Arts Forum was established and a Dance Development Network introduced.
• The Greater Manchester Arts & Health Network selected Wigan as the lead agency for developing arts and health work across Greater Manchester.

Turnpike Gallery
The Turnpike Gallery is housed within The Turnpike Centre in Leigh. Through its programme of exhibitions the gallery presents contemporary art by local, regional, national and international artists. It also delivers a variety of learning and outreach activities and events to the local community. In 2005/06 new branding was introduced to broaden the appeal of the gallery to local and wider audiences. Highlights in the calendar for 05/06 included ‘Crossing Waters’ (July/Aug), ‘Terres d’Afrique’ (Aug/Sept), ‘Designs for Life’ (Dec-Jan) and ‘The Kingston Turnpike’ (Feb-March), featuring established and emerging artists from the North West and beyond the UK.

Young People
Following on from the success of The Linc newspaper, 2005/06 saw the introduction of the ‘Linc Online’ web pages. The web site provides an information resource for young people across the borough, incorporating a wide range of information from advice agencies to cultural opportunities.

As part of the Extreme Sports work, over 400 young people engaged in extreme sports events, project works and facility trips. A DVD was produced by young people to advocate further support.

Community Development
Work in support of cultural voluntary sector organisations continued and focused on advice, guidance, practical assistance and skill-building where the acquisition of grant- aid for and due delivery on a varied portfolio of projects was concerned. Over £160,000 worth of grants were secured throughout the course of the year to help community groups and voluntary organisations contribute to the vision of Getting Wigan Active – creatively, mentally, physically and through good local citizenship as well.

Work is in progress with the Cultural Partnership on a new ‘Cultural Manifesto’ to capture what makes Wigan unique and special to those who live, work and/or spend leisure time in the borough, and to convey a new community-grown vision for cultural development through 2012 as well. This will be completed in 2006/07.

The Kick Racism Campaign involved over 4,000 people with arts workshops, multicultural football events, school-based curricular work and public awareness campaigning during 2005/6. This key programme continues to be used to promote multi-culturalism and a zero tolerance attitude to racism throughout the borough. A celebratory lunch was held on 17 February 2006 for those who supported the various events, with over 50 people in attendance.

Play
The Community Playgrounds Strategy was rolled-out during 2005/06, with £400,000 of investment made in community playgrounds during the year and more to follow in due course.

Highlights for 05/06 include:
• Over 1,000 play sessions have been delivered throughout the Wigan Borough during the course of the year.
• The biggest ever National Play Day took place at Pennington Flash with 2,000 visitors (double the amount of people from 04/05) resulting in regional television coverage.
• Lilford Park’s play facilities underwent a dramatic transformation following a £110,000 investment. The new facility is located on the existing site, split into different age zones. The play area now offers something for all children 12 years old and under, regardless of their physical ability.
• Firs Park in Leigh underwent an investment of £150,000 in a partnership project with National Road Safety Initiative in Highways. This resulted in the new and exciting ‘adventure type equipment’ being installed which doubled the size of the facility for local children and young people.
• Every Play area in the borough had an independent report commissioned by ROSPA (The Royal Society for the Protection of Accidents) via the Township process which helped to form an action plan for each play area.
• The Play Section continue to work with and support Wigan Play Association a voluntary organisation who had over 3,000 children attending summer play schemes across the borough this summer.

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Milestones & Highlights 4
Environmental Management & Sustainability

Image: Mesnes Park view from LodgeParks & Countryside
A management restructure of this diverse range of services started during 2005/06. The new structure aims to create a more integrated service and will make the division match-fit for the challenges and opportunities ahead.

In December 2005 the Mayor of Wigan officially opened Kipling Park, a brand new purpose built neighbourhood park for residents of Worsley Mesnes. An investment of £171,000 transformed a debris-ridden piece of wasteland (formerly the site of Worsley Mesnes Primary School) into a recreation and play area, providing a focal point for the local community.

The whole consultation process took over twelve months and included input from local children, youth groups and mother and toddler groups on the design of the play facilities. The new Kipling Park includes play areas for all children aged up to eleven years. Further funding has been secured to provide a ball park facility for older children and young people in the neighbourhood.

Continuing on the success of the previous year, many events and activities took place in the borough’s parks and countryside. The biggest ever national play day was held at Pennington Flash in August with 2,000 people in attendance. A season of summer concerts took place at Pennington Hall Park, Mesnes Park and Jubilee Park culminating with ‘Last Night of the Proms’ at Pennington Hall Park in September. A range of family-friendly activities and walks took place for children and adults throughout the year.
A number of development projects have also taken place to improve the facilities available:

• A Heritage Lottery Fund ‘project planning grant’ has been approved for Mesnes Park. This will fund the production of detailed supporting documents for the proposed restoration work. If successful, improvements will be made to the bandstand, cafe pavilion, lodge house and Dalton's steps. Costings are also being generated for safe, well-illuminated routes and CCTV.
• Further improvements were made to Pennington Hall bandstand. Phase two work included landscaping to create an audience area for the bandstand.

Playing Fields
The Playing Fields Strategy continues to progress. Work is programmed with five replacement pitches as part of the Leigh Sports Village development in Leigh which should come on line for light use for the 2007/08 season.

Haigh Hall and Estate
The year 2005/06 saw many new improvements up at Haigh:

  • From October 2005 Haigh Hall was opened to the general public on a regular basis, for the first time ever, to launch a traditional Sunday Carvery. Over 2,500 people visited the Carvery within the first five months of operation.
  • December saw one of the first Civil Ceremony Partnerships in the country taking place at Haigh Hall. The team is now looking to market the venue for this type of ceremony amongst its target audience.
  • The Stables Tea Rooms, formerly known as the Haigh Café was reopened in February 2006 following a significant investment. The facility has been transformed with state-of-the-art kitchen equipment, food display units, new furniture and decoration making the tea rooms a more pleasant environment. The menu was also revamped and now includes the brand new Haigh Hall flavour ice cream.
  • More focus was placed on promoting the corporate facilities at the Hall and Stables, including the new catering capabilities, with the launch of a new suite of marketing materials.

The annual calendar of events and activities continues to grow with:
• The Estate playing host to major events including Race 4 Life.
• Partnership working with the Arts section to deliver Arts for All and the Haigh Festival which attracted 3,000 people.
• Dean Taylor’s Shakespeare tour visited Haigh Hall with their production of ‘Merry Wives of Windsor’, entertaining family audiences with performances around the grounds and ending in the Walled Gardens.
• A full programme of open-air children's theatre from the Storytellers Theatre Company, paying tribute to family classics.

Haigh Hall Golf Complex
Highlights of the year included: Caroline Atherton winning the Greater Manchester Sports Person of the Year beating many talented sports people including Olympic Athletes. Caroline used the Academy facilities at Haigh and was coached by one of the Senior Instructors.

During the year over 300 children received regular instruction at Haigh Academy and Craig Corrigan dominated the local Professional Golf scene winning several events including the North Region PGA Championship.

Grounds Maintenance
The Grounds Maintenance Team provide a wide range of services to the public and private sector; they maintain the majority of Wigan Borough’s parks, countryside areas, outdoor sports pitches, school playing fields and open spaces.

The Grounds Maintenance Team have recently expanded their service provision by successfully competing for private sector business across the region, large contracts have now been secured in both Salford and Cheshire.

The Grounds Maintenance service holds the prestigious ISO:9001 quality management standard and have recently been awarded with the internationally recognised ISO:14001, which promotes environmentally friendly work practices and operations.

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Milestones & Highlights 5
Corporate Support

The Trust aims to provide the best possible services to its customers. Corporate Support Services play an important role in ensuring that standards are established, maintained and improved upon. During 2005/06 a number of initiatives were introduced demonstrating the organisation’s commitment to its customers:

• New customer complaints and compliments procedures were introduced across the Trust. Forms are now located at all facilities and via the website.

• The introduction of a new Customer Care Policy, also available online, was a major achievement this year. Training on Customer Care is due to be incorporated into the internal training programme for all front line staff.

• A Mystery Shopping programme was launched to drive continuous improvement. The scheme is viewed positively and has led to improvements in customer care standards across all services areas.

Recognising that staff are one of the Trust’s most valuable resources:

• The internal training programme was reviewed and updated to ensure that staff are equipped with the right skills and that training is available on new policies. This now includes an NVQ programme.

• The Managers Toolbox of training was re-launched to ensure that what is offered provides the relevant knowledge and skills to enable the effective management of services and staff.

• All staff were invited to participate in national Adult Learner’s Week via ‘Learning at Work Day’ in May. This provided an opportunity for staff to utilise skills not normally associated with their job and to share those skills with colleagues.

• A new induction programme is planned for new staff during the next financial year and improvements will be made to the way in which the Trust advertises vacancies.

One of the Trusts ongoing areas for development is performance management:

• A performance management handbook was introduced which links the planning process to budgets more closely than before. Performance is monitored against indicators which are meaningful and therefore assists managers in understanding their services and the needs of customers. The performance indicators are grouped into four themes:

• Participation
• Partnership
• Customer Satisfaction
• Impact (including Diversity)

These link back to the organisation’s overall vision of ‘Getting Wigan Active’ and enable the organisation to ensure that targets are being achieved in key areas.
Progress has been made on improving services and accessibility. Achievements include:

• The Trust achieved Level 1 of the Equality Standard for Local Government.

• The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) certified the Trust’s website as W3C‘AAA’ compliant. Over 1.58 million hits were recorded during the course of the year.

• A new computerised bookings system, Torex, was implemented across sport and leisure facilities. This programme will assist with the collection of data to more accurately profile existing customers and to identify areas where more targeted work needs to be done.

• Text to speech facilities have been made available on the website allowing vision impaired customers better access to Trust information.

• Translation services, including: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, simplified Chinese, Russian and Greek have been introduced to the website to ensure that foreign visitors have equal access.

• The Trust has an investment fund which is used to fund projects, developments, and improvements to services and facilities, examples of the investments made during 2005/06 can be identified in the service area pages (pages 6 to 25).

Tourism
The Tourist Information Centre was relocated to the town centre in April 2005 from its former home at Trencherfield Mill. The centre now offers everything that visitors to the borough might need, including information on: what to see, where to stay and other places of interest. It also houses an E-tourism centre and a retail outlet offering souvenirs and gifts.

The ‘Wigan in the Premiership’ campaign group was formed, on the back of Wigan Athletic Football Clubs’ rise to the Premier League. This work, to promote the best of Wigan, including it’s leisure and cultural facilities, was led by the Trust. It culminated in an award nomination from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations for Public Sector Campaign of the Year.

Enterprises
The Enterprise arm of the Trust continues to grow and develop in order to generate profit to invest back into the organisation. Highlights for 2005/06 were as follows:

The newly re-branded ‘Leisure Venues’ attracted a series of national performances to the borough. ‘Once Upon a Time in Wigan’ the acclaimed theatre production about the rise and fall of Wigan Casino, secured five dates at Lowton Civic Hall in May. In addition, the Monaco Ballroom strengthened its reputation as a comedy venue offering up both Dave Spikey and Paddy McGuiness with over 2,600 tickets sold for the 4 gigs held in November 2005, and February 2006 gigs.

Haigh Catering saw the further development of their facilities during the course of the year, with the launch of the Sunday Carvery and newly refurbished Stables Tea Rooms, both proving to be very popular with visitors.

The Enterprise arm of Grounds Maintenance delivered improved profitability in particular with the growth of Arboriculture and Landscaping services both within and outside of the borough. The business began to market its services across the region and was successful in securing a number of key orders from Salford City Council (worth over £75k) and other bodies in the public sector.

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WIGAN LEISURE & CULTURE TRUST
CHARITY REGISTRATION NUMBER 1105278
ANNUAL REPORT 2005/06
REVIEW OF THE YEAR

The Trust and its trading subsidiary Wigan Leisure & Culture Enterprises Limited, have performed well in meeting the group’s operational and social objectives.

However for the first time in 2005/06, the full provisions of Financial Reporting Standard 17 on Retirement Benefits have been implemented and the results of the previous year have been restated to reflect the change. This accounting change, together with a necessary but significant investment in additional office accommodation, has resulted in net outgoing resources of £404,115 for the financial year.

The principal activity of Wigan Leisure & Culture Enterprises Limited is to generate a trading surplus to fund and expand the work of the Trust and in 2005/06 the company generated an operating surplus of £172,056.

The Trust has adopted a reserves policy that safeguards the future financial viability of the Trust but that at the same time, through a continuous review process, minimises excessive levels of reserves so as to maximise investment in service delivery. The Board of Trustees will continue to adhere to that policy in future years.

After a successful year during which the Board approved in excess of £500,000 in additional investment in library, sporting and other facilities and have introduced free swimming for people aged over 60 in support of its “Getting Wigan Active” strategy, we are committed to and confidently predict a further development and improvement in the services that we supply to the residents of and visitors to the borough.

Ms J Boardman
Chair of the Board of Trustees

Mr R F D R Hill
Chief Executive

Auditors’ Report
The auditors to the Trust are Grant Thornton UK LLP and their report to the members of the Trust states that, in their opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the Trust’s affairs as at 31 March 2006 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, in the year then ended and have been properly prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 1985.

2005/06 ANNUAL ACCOUNTS

The following statements represent a summary of the information contained in the full accounts for 2005//06, which are available upon written request from:

Director of Finance
Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust
1st Floor, The Indoor Sports Centre
Loire Drive
Robin Park
WIGAN WN5 0UL

The Directors of the Trust confirm that the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2006 have been prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards and the Charity Statement of Recommended Practices (SORP) issued in March 2005. The Statement of Financial Activities (SOFA) shows the gross income from all sources and the split of activity between restricted, designated and unrestricted funds. The full provisions of Financial Reporting Standard 17 on Retirement Benefits have been implemented and the results of the previous year have been restated to reflect the change.

The consolidated statements for the group include the results of the charitable company and its 100% owned subsidiary, Wigan Leisure & Culture Enterprises Limited. The charitable company is a company limited by guarantee and its income and property shall be applied solely towards its objectives, which are still appropriate and valid:
- the advancement and support of education, culture, arts, heritage and history
- the provision and assistance in the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupations
- the promotion and preservation of good health through community participation in healthy recreation
- all other charitable purposes consistent with the above.

The company gained charitable status on 3rd August 2004 and its registration number is 1105278. It operates under its Memorandum and Articles of Association as modified in June 2004, which delegate operational decisions to the executive team. The company’s Memorandum of Association gives authority to invest in investments, securities or property as may be thought fit.

The Board of Trustees was set up through a mix of identified specialists, council nominees and advertisements in the local press. The Trustees are as follows;
- J Boardman (Chair)
- J B Baldwin (Audit) (HR)
- D A Bartle (HR)
- T Bradshaw (HR)
- J Garlick (Audit) (F&P)
- W Hampson (Audit) (F&P)
- D A Lea (HR)
- S Louden (resigned 20 May 2005)
- D A Newman (F&P)
- G M Patmore (resigned 22 February 2006)
- E Smethurst (appointed 2 December 2005) (F&P)
- A Wiggans (appointed 20 May 2005) (HR)
(Note; Audit/F&P/HR denote permanent members of the relevant committees).

The members of the executive team are;
- R Hill (Chief Executive)
- A Johnson (Finance Director and Company Secretary)
- K Bardgett (Executive Director)
- I Bancroft (Executive Director)
- M Eden (Executive Director)
- P Gascoigne (Executive Director)
- S Murray (Executive Director)

In preparing the accounts, the Trustees have:

  • applied, on a consistent basis, suitable accounting policies which are regularly reviewed
  • made judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent
  • stated whether applicable accounting standards have been followed
  • prepared the financial statements on the going concern basis

In addition, the Trustees confirm that they have kept proper accounting records, have responsibility for safeguarding the assets of the organisation and have taken reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Mr R F D R Hill
Chief Executive

W J A Johnson
Finance Director

► View Balance Sheets and Statements Adobe PDF

Employee Information
Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust is an Investors in People organisation totally committed to supporting the development of its employees. Individuals are recognised for their contribution and encouraged by their manager to continually improve through the annual EDNA (Employee Development Needs Appraisal) process.

The Trust takes a positive approach to diversity and is fully committed to equal opportunities. Applications are welcome from all sections of the community regardless of gender, age, colour, nationality, national or ethnic origin, religious belief, disability, social class, marital status or sexual orientation.

The Trust provides the opportunity for all its employees to develop their full potential.

The average number of permanent employees of the Trust during the year was 788. The full-time equivalent was 682.

The average number of staff employed in the various operational areas of the Trust was as follows:

Libraries, Heritage & Information - 234
Sport & Healthy Living - 201
Environmental Management - 244
Corporate Support - 71
Policy and Regeneration - 32
Executive Management Team - 6

The Directors of the Trust have no beneficial interest in the Trust and did not receive any remuneration from the Trust during the year.

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