Bolton’s municipal cemeteries are looking spic and span after a spring clean by workers from Bolton Council.
All seven council-owned cemeteries across the borough have been worked on extensively, including grass cutting, trimming overgrown shrubs and brambles, and re-establishing and tidying up paths.
Grass cutting in cemeteries is a big job. Workers have had to strim in-between tens of thousands of headstones, before tidying the grass off graves using blowers.
The work has been made possible by additional funding announced as part of this year’s budget settlement.
The new funding has paid for a new ten-person green space operational team equipped with two pickup trucks, two large ride-on mowers, ten strimmers and six blowers.
Members of the public have chatted to the team and emailed the council to express their appreciation for the improvements.
After the initial tidying up of the cemeteries, the council has begun a programme of scheduled maintenance and grass cutting from April.
The team will be busy throughout autumn and winter, keeping the spaces at their best through improvements such as removing overgrown ivy, maintaining paths and cutting back brambles.
Bolton Council’s Executive Member for Climate Change and Environment, Cllr Richard Silvester, said:
“Bolton’s historic cemeteries date as far back as the 1850s and are important places for the community, where people come to remember their loved ones.
“So, we take our role as their guardians seriously and are committed to keeping them suitably neat and tidy.
“This hasn’t always been easy at a time of rising demands on council budgets, which is why I’m extremely pleased with the work this new team has carried out and I look forward to seeing the benefits of our regular maintenance programme.”