Three Bolton parks are enjoying a spring clean thanks to a new maintenance and improvement plan.
Tonge Park, Milnthorpe Park and Leverhulme Park will be tidied and cleaned after local councillors came together to fund a new member of staff.
The two-year programme will see the new neighbourhood services officer spend a month at each park on a rotating basis.
The usual maintenance of the parks such as grass cutting will continue as normal, but the new operative will be doing additional jobs like litter picking, path edging and pruning.
Paths will be cleaned, bins and benches jet washed, railings painted, fly-tipping removed and weeds cleared.
The work has already started at Tonge Park, where paths have been neatened and cleared.
The new park officer is part of the council’s neighbourhood services team and will work closely with local volunteer groups who dedicate their spare time to the upkeep of the parks.
The officer will work exclusively in the three parks, after Tonge with the Haulgh Councillors Nick Peel, Martin Donaghy and Emily Mort teamed up with Breightmet Councillors, Sean Fielding, Robert Morrisey and Adele Warren, to provide the £108k funding from their local devolved budgets.
Cllr Peel, Leader of Bolton Council, said:
“This is a unique type of project; councillors from two adjacent wards bringing together their local budgets to provide extra maintenance over and above that which other parks receive.
“It’s quite groundbreaking, and I urge other councillors to also think outside of the box for similar schemes.”
Bolton Council’s Executive Member for Climate Change and Environment, Cllr Richard Silvester, said:
“Bolton is incredibly blessed with parks and green spaces but keeping them in a good state of repair so that people feel safe and happy using them can be a challenge.
“This new project clearly shows the benefits of local councillors working together to make progress on the things that are important to communities.
“Thanks to this new funding, these three parks will be cleaner and better maintained and I encourage local people to visit and enjoy them.”