Borough Life Summer 2006
BED TIME... Volunteer planters Anne Jones and Barbara Sanderson, both from Aspull, Liam Booth from Tyldesley, Steve Topping of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers and Nick Burdekin from the council.
Cleaner, greener
(and getting meaner towards litter louts)
Borough Life readers are backing the council’s bid to see Wigan become a cleaner, greener borough.
When we appealed in the spring for people to help us win a Britain in Bloom award, you rose to the challenge. Offers of help in planting flowers and trees came in from all corners of the borough.
The application is now on its way to the Royal Horticultural Society together with a dossier of photos revealing the riot of spring colour that brightened up many areas.
Paul Dandy, the council’s street scene manager, said: “We’re grateful to readers who answered our call for help. We know that the environment and litter are dear to many residents’ hearts. It would be great to win an award for all the public’s hard work.”
The Kick Litter into Touch campaign has been relaunched with a strong push to publicise the fines now at the council’s disposal. Wigan is in the top 20 councils nationally for the number of fixed penalty fines issued – 276 in the past year.
The council is also getting tough with flytippers and its new hit squad has recently notched up several high profile convictions against those who blight our borough.
Now all that work is set to receive high level support. The council has decided to merge its engineering, planning and community protection departments into one powerful environmental services directorate.
- Do you want to help? Call 01942 705244 or email p.dandy@wigan.gov.uk