New Year start planned for town’s civic hub

Work on Wigan’s showpiece new library and swimming pool is on course to start in January, the council confirmed today.

Behind the scenes a lot of advance work has been taking place, ready for the day builders move in to start work on the new civic hub that is set to transform the face of the town.

The multi-million pound project – which goes by the working title of the joint service centre – will create a state of the art leisure, health and information complex including a new one stop shop for all public services.

A council spokesman said:

“In view of the effect of the national credit crunch on some big schemes, it’s not surprising that there’s been a bit of speculation about our project.

“While it might look as if not very much is happening, behind the scenes a lot of work has been going on to prepare the site.

“This includes an asbestos survey of the pool building, an archaeological survey, draining the pool and considerable redesign work of the building that will house the one stop shop and library to take account of consultation on the planning application.

“The CCTV centre previously located in the Municipal Buildings has been relocated to the town hall and plans are in place to relocate the children’s library in the Wiend temporarily to the Galleries.

“The government has told us they see this as a very prestigious scheme and they are as keen as we are to see it succeed. The project will transform this part of town and we can’t wait to get started.”

Early in January hoardings are likely to go up around the old baths and the Municipal Buildings. Any asbestos found in the pool building will be removed by specialist contractors before actual demolition can start.

While the building that houses the new swimming pool is still on course for completion at the end of 2010, the timetable for the library building and one stop shop has slipped a little and is now expected to be complete in spring 2011.

However council chiefs stress this is not due to any financial problems but because parts of the design had to be changed to take account of comments received as part of the consultation on the planning application. This had a knock on effect on the scheme getting planning permission and subsequent go ahead from the government.

The scheme will be built on the site of the Municipal Buildings (preserving the distinctive terracotta façade), the Wiend children’s library and International Pool.