A Middlestone Moor pensioner has volunteered some of his free time of a weekend to assist one of his County Councillors tidy up the local play area in Moorside.
County Councillor for the Spennymoor Division, Pete Molloy, put a request on social media for any volunteers to help him cut back the grass verges at the sides of the footpaths which pass through the play area and Mr Ron Eldrett came to help.
Mr Eldrett, 73, and a British Army veteran who served in the Royal Corps of Transport said: “Having lived next to the ball park for 11 years and seeing the state of the grass edges overgrown, I didn’t hesitate to help when I saw on social media Pete Molloy, who I’ve known for some time through the veterans breakfast club, asking for offers of help to tidy the grass edges.
“It was a very good feeling to see the difference made to the ball park and knowing I was a part of it.”
The work took both Cllr Molloy and Mr Eldrett six hours over two Sundays, with Durham County Council’s Clean and Green department quickly coming out to collect the blue bags of grass verge edge cuttings.
Speaking on why he organised the grass verge edge cutting, Cllr Molloy said: “The grass verges were encroaching onto the footpaths, which made the play area look untidy, but unfortunately DCC no longer have a budget to carry out the cutting back of grass verges, so it falls on local people to do this type of work if they want to make where they live look tidier.
“I would like to thank Ron for his hard work in helping to improve the appearance of the local area, another local resident for bringing out some refreshments for Ron and Clean and Green for their quick response to take away the bags.”
Cllr Molloy has reported to Durham County Council for the removal of the graffiti on the play equipment and benches, repair to a couple of parts of one of the footpaths and the general cleaning of litter.
Spennymoor's local community newspaper.
