Flashes Festival of Nature and apprenticeship success

Flashes Festival of Nature and apprenticeship success

This month provides an opportunity to reflect on the weeks last summer when Leigh welcomed the UEFA Women’s Euros tournament.

It almost seems unbelievable that those days with the packed-out fan zones at Leigh Town Hall, amazing crowds at the LSV and the Ella Toone-inspired Lionesses going on to claim the title was 12 months ago!

And while England are gearing up for their World Cup campaign down under (we wish them the best of luck), we can look back on our local successes.

Hosting the tournament in Leigh brought so many economic, social and cultural benefits to the area along with the lasting legacy of thousands more young girls feeling inspired to take up sport.

Since then, we have established two football hubs in the borough and we will continue to talk about the Women’s Euros for many more years to come.

We’re proud to have played our part in the tournament and I would once again like to thank everyone who made it possible, especially the teams of staff and volunteers at the both the LSV and the town hall who made the experience such an enjoyable for the thousands who attended.

We had cause to celebrate in recent weeks as our work to support apprentices has been recognised nationally.

The council was named on the top 100 apprenticeship employer list for 2023, which takes into account the number of roles created and the variety.

We’re thrilled to have been included and the status is representative of how we view the importance of providing such opportunities, especially for young people.

We will continue to prioritise our schemes that support apprentices to start their careers here at the town hall and also with organisations across the borough, as our FAB apprentice initiative does.

In events news, I would like to say thank you to the organisers of Pride in Leigh who made a great success of their festival held in Pennington Hall Park earlier this month.

And we’re looking forward to this weekend with the Flashes Festival of Nature held at Pennington Flash on Sunday, 16 July.

From 11am to 3pm there will be a host of nature-themed family fun, celebrating the flashes with a nod to us receiving National Nature Reserve status from Natural England last year.

More information about the festival can be found on Visit Wigan (external link).