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NewsGreater Manchester NewsBoltonSeven cemeteries have been tidied up extensively in the past few weeksAn aerial view of Tonge cemetery after grass cutting and maintenance workBolton’s cemeteries have had a spring clean from a newly-formed team of council workers. All seven council-owned cemeteries across Bolton have been worked on extensively in the past few weeks.
Work has included grass cutting, trimming overgrown shrubs and brambles, and re-establishing and tidying up paths. Bolton Council said grass cutting in cemeteries is a big job with workers having 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 council budget settlement. The new funding has paid for a new ten-person green space operational team equipped with two pick-up trucks, two large ride-on mowers, ten strimmers and six blowers.
The council said feedback has been positive, with members of the public chatting to the team and the council have been emailed by some to express their appreciation for the improvements.
After the initial tidying up of the cemeteries, the council has started a programme of scheduled maintenance and grass cutting from April.
Bolton Councils new green spaces operational teamThe 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, Coun 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.”