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Sweeping issues away

26/ 6/2008

FURTHER plans to make the Victoria Estate in Whitefield a safer place to live are being introduced.

The estate has already been granted its own police officer and now Bury Council, the police, fire and rescue service, Six Town Housing and others are joining forces to launch the ‘Beat Sweep’ project.

Among other things, Beat Sweep will aim to improve children’s play areas and street lighting, remove graffiti and challenge criminal activity in five days of action.

During Beat Sweep, residents will also be offered free fire safety checks and advice from the fire service, who will also be fitting smoke alarms.

Derek Boden, councillor for the Besses ward, said: "What the initiative is about is helping people to take more control over their lives. We want to improve morale in the area by allowing people to see nuisance day-to-day issue that may be bothering them, dealt with.

"It’s a clean sweep prior to attending to one or two other issues that have been effecting the estate.

"It’s a very good start to getting things off the ground and the ball rolling before the new police officer arrives."

While action weeks are no new concept, nothing on this scale has been attempted before in Bury.

More Beat Sweeps are to be organised by the teams later in the year.

The operation will begin at 10am on July 21.