Mexico has ‘better parks for its dogs’ than Westhoughton has for its children

Westhoughton councillor David Wilkinson in Central Park

The public parks of Mexico have “better facilities for their dogs than we do for our children”, Westhoughton councillor David Wilkinson has said.

Having retired from his work on the railways at the end of last year, David took a trip to Latin America with his son over Christmas.

David said: “The public parks in Mexico are very impressive. They are well kept, clean and have lots of facilities for everyone to enjoy. In fact they have better facilities for their dogs than we do for our children.”

The secure dog area in a local park in Mexico, featuring activities for the dogs

A skate park in a Mexico park

David, who grew up in Westhoughton, recalled better times for the town’s Central Park when he was a boy.

He said: “I used to love to come to play in Central Park, it was so much fun and we had good facilities. Nowadays all that has gone, the park looks tired and run down and Bolton Council have wasted all our money on the wrong priorities instead of investing in our park. They spent £1 million on footpaths on Market Street that nobody wanted instead of improving the park’s facilities.”

Westhoughton councillors Neil Maher, Arthur Price and Linda Maher at a derelict looking Central Park

Westhoughton Town Council is looking to form a Friends of Central Park group to revitalise the park.

David and the Liberal Democrat team also managed to secure a recent clean up of some of the steps and footpaths in the park, using the services of the Community Payback team.

David added: “Travelling recently opened my eyes to how much better our own park could be with money and some imagination. We are going to campaign hard for things to be better for Westhoughton’s children so they can enjoy it as much as I did when I was a youngster.”