Besides the old Wigan Boys Club, the other club to influence the youth zone was Bolton Lads and Girls Club. The club had prospered since 1980’s and had gained a reputation for delivering great new ways of working with young people, particularly those facing some kind of disadvantage.
In 2009, David Whelan, Martin Ainscough CBE, Bill Ainscough and Lord Peter Smith took a journey to Bolton Lads and Girls Club to look around the facility.
By the time their taxi had arrived back in Wigan, the group had decided the young people of Wigan deserved a similar facility, only in Dave Whelan’s words; “It will be bigger and better.”
