New partnership set to make Hadley and Leegomery cleaner and greener

Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council and Telford & Wrekin Council are putting £25,000 and £12,500 a year respectively to a new environmental team to work in the Parish.

This will provide employment for two staff, an environmental maintenance operative and one apprentice on work to help keep the Hadley and Leegomery Parish even cleaner and greener.

The apprentice role will ultimately lead to an NVQ Level Two in Cleaning and Environmental Services.

The partnership agreement, which will run for the next five years, is another example of how Telford & Wrekin and its partners are coming together and working co-operatively to find new solutions for public services in the borough.

The team will provide an enhanced service over and above that provided by Telford and Wrekin Council's core contract.

It will cover such things as enhanced litter picking, leaf fall clearance, repairs to street furniture, conservation tasks in Apley Woods, and improvements to landscaped areas such as additional planting and replacing worn out shrub beds.

Hadley and Leegomery is the fourth parish council in the borough to enter into a similar partnership with Telford & Wrekin Council with Madeley, Great Dawley and St George’s & Priorslee already signing up to the scheme.

Councillor John Smart, chairman of Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council, said: “Our residents are very proud of where they live and having a good clean local environment is very important to them. There will be ongoing monitoring of the project to ensure we obtain value for money.

“This partnership is a great way for us to ensure that our efforts are focused in the parish on the areas that are a priority for us and we are making the most of the combined resources of both councils.”

Councillor Shaun Davies, cabinet member for Neighbourhood Services and Co-operative Council, said: “This is another great example of how willing an ever growing range of partners are to come together to give better local services.

“We are encouraging all parish and town councils to look at this approach and are confident that many more will follow Hadley and Leegomery’s approach.

“At a time when we face unprecedented cuts in Government funding, we have to find new ways of delivering the services that local people want and that will help make the borough cleaner and greener.

“This scheme also has the added advantage of creating new training opportunities for young people and will support our wider drive for apprenticeships across the borough.”