Heap Bridge pupils have ‘sow’ much fun planting trees at landfill site

Posted 22 May 2012

Pupils from Heap Bridge Village Primary School in Bury joined the newly elected Mayor of Bury, Councillor Joan Grimshaw, to plant the last one hundred of 28,000 trees at a restored area of Pilsworth South landfill site on the Bury/Heywood border.

The twenty year six pupils who had earlier in the day finished their SAT exams, enjoyed a trip to a restored area of nearby Pilsworth South landfill, operated by leading recycling and waste management company Viridor. The site has seen over 28,000 trees planted in the last year as part of its restoration into pastoral landscape and the pupils, assisted by Red Rose Forest and Viridor, were on hand to assist with the final touches. 

The landfill site opened in 2006 to provide safe and essential disposal of residual waste in the Greater Manchester area and it generates 3.5 MW of power, which is transferred to the National Grid.  Restoration of the site to reflect the surrounding area occurs in stages, once parts of the landfill site are filled and capped.  Areas of the site already restored allow public access through a number of bridleways and once fully restored the area will be accessible for locals to enjoy, and will include features such as footpaths and cycleways, a car park, picnic areas and playgrounds.

The event was one of the newly appointed Mayor of Bury, Councillor Joan Grimshaw’s, first public engagements and she said; “To plant this amount of trees in Bury is incredible. As a local councillor I have been in contact with Viridor for a long time and it is fantastic to see the restoration work that is going on. I hope that the children planting trees today will return to the site one day when the area is fully restored and enjoy it with their families.”

Steve Newman, Viridor’s Regional Manager said; “We all recognise that we must recycle more and stop sending waste to landfill, but there is still a need for well operated landfill sites for waste that cannot be recycled. Viridor operates a number of the best landfill sites in the country, producing a total of 108 MW of renewable energy and five of our closed landfill sites have already been awarded Biodiversity Benchmark status by the National Trust. With the restoration work that has gone on at Pilsworth and what we plan to do in the future we will be aiming for this same accreditation in Bury, creating an enjoyable open space for the local community.”

Headteacher at Heap Bridge Primary School, Marcus Cockfcroft added; “Encouraging children to learn about the benefits of trees and the environment by actually getting their hands dirty and planting the trees themselves is perfect. The children were very much looking forward to this event, especially after a hard week of exams and it gives us a good platform to continue our teaching about the environment.”

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