Planning permission at last for Wigan Pier

Published: Thursday, 18 July 2019

PLANS have at last been accepted for the transformation of the old industrial buildings at Wigan Pier to be regenerated.

Time and time again plans have been put forward over the years to transform the  vacant 18th century industrial buildings, and they are now approved, Alan Tilbury reports.

wigan pierTwo applications

Two separate applications were put forward and granted. The first to create a wedding venue, micro-brewery, gin-distillery, food hall and event space, changing the use of the former Orwell public house and Heritage Centre.

The second application was for the development of eight three storey, canal side residential town houses, with parking spaces.

This is part of Wigan Council’s ‘Strategic Regeneration Framework’, which is its masterplan for development of the town centre.

No pier

Wigan Pier, as boaters passing through on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal are aware, does not exist as there is no pier in Wigan, but the name was given to a coal loading jetty, where wagons from a nearby colliery were unloaded into waiting barges. But the original wooden pier was  believed to have been demolished in 1929.