Clean-up campaign given a £2m boost

CLEANING up: Councillor Paul Murphy and David Baines, from United Utilities, at Moston Brook

A FAILSWORTH neighbourhood clean-up campaign is getting a £2 million boost thanks to a major sewer project by United Utilities.

The Moston Brook Partnership has been working for three years to improve the watercourse and the area around it.

United Utilities says the latest scheme will bring huge improvements in water quality.

And some brand new artwork designed with the help of local youngsters is now brightening up the construction site to help tell passers-by what it is all about.

United Utilities has been tunnelling under the river at Hale Lane, Failsworth, to lay a new sewer pipe that will prevent pollution overflowing into the watercourse during heavy rain.

Project manager David Baines said: “There has been a tremendous amount of activity by the Partnership to improve this stretch of Moston Brook, and now we’re delivering our part of the jigsaw.

“Every sewer system has overflow points which act like safety valves to help prevent roads and footpaths from flooding when sewers fill up during heavy rain.

“Here at Hale Lane there is an old overflow point which we have just sealed off completely by linking the sewer systems on each side of the river with the new tunnel. It will bring massive benefits to wildlife in the river and improve the environment for local people.”

The hoardings around the work sites on each side of the brook have been given a facelift with artwork produced by an urban artist who worked with young volunteers from the Moston Brook Environmental Events Team (MBEETS).

Councillor Paul Murphy, chairman of the Moston Brook Partnership, said: “This engineering work is going to have a huge impact on the river, and the new artwork represents the activities undertaken by the whole community to revive the brook as an amenity, as well as painting a vision of its cleaner future. United Utilities has played a major role in funding some of this community work which has given local young people the skills and opportunities to improve themselves as well as their local area.”

Councillor Barbara Brownridge, Oldham Council Deputy Cabinet Member for Transport, Housing, and Regeneration added: “I am delighted that United Utilities have invested over £2 million into improving the Moston Brook corridor, which is now being used for so many different positive activities.

“It is a historic moment and achievement that this scheme has effectively stopped the decades of pollution into the brook in an instant! This positive partnership working with key organisations like United Utilities is vital in assisting the work of Oldham and Manchester Councils and its partners to continue the regeneration of the Moston Brook corridor.”

The Moston Brook sewer improvement project is part of United Utilities’ £3.6 billion investment plan between 2010 and 2015, helping bring better water supplies and a cleaner environment.

It is the first of seven sewer projects, worth around £26 million altogether, earmarked to improve the River Irk and its tributaries between Oldham and Manchester over the next five years.