In the last three years, over £100,000 has been invested in the habitat

improvements

The non-profit organisation City of Trees have acquired a combined total of £96,142 in funding from Trafford Council and Veolia Environmental Trust for improvements to be made at Wellacre Country Park in Trafford. 87% of people surveyed in the park felt that their physical or mental health had benefitted from their visit. The improvements are sure to benefit even more visitors.

One of the main footpaths linking residents from Ambleside to Carrington Road will be renewed so that it improves sightlines thus making visitors feel safer. New signage in the form of interpretation boards and way markers will be installed across the site too, outlining walking routes and providing information

on local wildlife to encourage safe exploration of the greenspace.

With the help of The Conservation Volunteers, community volunteering days will be held where local schools and residents can get involved to carry out habitat management works. These include wildflower planting, grassland and woodland management, and invasive species control.

City of Trees central focus is on re-invigorating the landscape of Greater Manchester through planting trees and restoring woodlands. They have currently planted over 500,000 and hope to have planted one for every person that lives in the city within 5 years.

To discover more about this charity please visit www.cityoftrees.org.uk

Wilding Trafford’s Fruits of LabourThe Wilding Trafford project is continuing to improve habitats for wildlife and pollinators. Orchards have been recently planted in Gorse Hill Park, Seymour Park and Hullard Park. Volunteers planted a variety of apple and pear trees in March and will return come next winter to add more, including some large cherry trees at Gorse Hill. A total of 15 fruit trees will be planted in each park.

Orchards not only invite nature into the urban environment but also provide a gathering space for the local community. These spaces provide the opportunity for groups to work together while learning traditional skills through creating and managing abundant harvests. Orchards are not only vital to wildlife but resident wellbeing too, making Trafford wilder and greener.

To find out more about your local Trafford park visit www.trafford.gov.uk/parks. For green space updates, search #TraffordParks on Twitter.

Spring 2021

Local News from the One Trafford PartnershipONE TRAFFORD

Go Ahead Given for Site Improvements at Wellacre Country Park

One Trafford teams are out every day come rain or shine to keep the borough clean and safe, creating better places to live, work and relax.

In the last year alone, the street cleansing teams attended over 4,000 fly-tip requests to remove items from alleyways, parks, car parks and open spaces. The team, who work seven days a week, removed a total of 540 tonnes from land maintained by the council. That’s equivalent to the weight of 80 elephants!

Five teams also worked every day of the week, emptying an average of 750 litter bins per day within parks and streets – removing a huge 85 tonnes of litter per month.

In the autumn of 2020, we also removed 2,000 tonnes of leaves from the highway, including footpaths. That is

the same weight as 19 blue whales! Dedicated teams remove leaves each autumn, and we’ll be back again this year to keep streets and pavements clean and safe.

It’s not just street cleansing teams keeping Trafford safe, clean, and tidy! The highways team, who are responsible for maintaining the condition of the road network, attended 5,670 reactive repair jobs. Repairs can include footways, kerbs, and carriageway defects like pothole. Alongside reactive road repairs, the drainage team jetted out 16,000 gullies in the past year, averaging over 300 a week!

Finally, during the winter months, our winter maintenance team were called out 62 times and spread over 2,000 tonnes of salt to protect Trafford’s priority network.

Our street cleansing teams collectively empty just over 85 tonnes of litter each month.

That’s the same weight as 13 T-Rex!

Sweeper clearing leaves

Cleaning fly-tipping

Laying tarmac

Creating better places

My story with Kieran SkehanApprentice Civil Engineer

I started my apprenticeship in Civil Engineering with Amey in 2019 right after secondary school at the age of 16. I preferred to take a path where I could simultaneously gain work experience, qualifications and earn a wage. Currently I work four days a week with the Traffic and Transport team and spend one day a week at college.

A typical day for me includes completing Computer Aided Design plans which go out when engaging with the public so that they can better understand future implementations and responding to residents who email in with traffic issues. This can be related to consultations for schemes, particularly if they have any objections or concerns, as well as parking schemes and general traffic related issues. Other activities include generating Traffic Regulation Orders, known as a TRO, to legally enforce road markings like double yellow lines.

I often make phone calls to speak directly to residents or produce letters which are distributed to residents as part of consultations. This has helped to develop my confidence massively, especially being able to handle challenging conversations. Although I’m working and studying in the Civil Engineering field, this role has helped me develop key skills like letter writing and gathering and analysing data generated from consultations.

One of the things I enjoy the most in this role is the varied form of work which can be both office-based and field-based. Some days I visit sites - for example, getting involved in line marking and measuring up the carriageway for traffic schemes. This also means I get to work with some of our sub-contractors to assist in completing jobs and schemes.

Outside of my daily duties, I also joined the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme through Amey to further push me out of my comfort zone.

Amey has helped to develop these skills by offering me as much support as I need. I have been assigned a colleague or buddy with whom I can ask questions in case I feel uncomfortable or intimidated. Though, since everyone is so friendly and welcoming, I soon felt like I could ask about anything to anyone. No question is a silly question!

Like most people, I have been working from home this year. I thought it would be difficult, but I don’t think it has affected my job since I’m able to communicate daily with the team and have their support. I have now spent around a year in office and one year at home, with site visits in between – this has pushed me to become independent and trust my own working decisions.

I’m now going into my third year at the One Trafford Partnership. This year, part of my time at work will be allocated to earn my degree in Civil Engineering. This is a fantastic opportunity as all costs and accommodation are provided for through the company.

At One Trafford, there are many opportunities to experience other sectors within the engineering and highways departments. This includes structures, drainage, and mapping, but I’m currently really enjoying Traffic and Transport.

This apprenticeship has carved out an amazing career path for me, which I’m looking forward to continuing well after I gain my degree. I’m pleased I picked Amey to join the apprenticeship programme – I can see that they really look after their teams and have given me all the support I need. I would highly recommend school leavers exploring the opportunity for an apprenticeship with Amey.

To learn more about apprenticeships and graduate schemes visit www.amey.co.uk/apprenticeships.

Kieran is the fifth apprentice since

2016 to join our team

Report It

www.trafford.gov.uk/report-it

03330 035865

Tell us about faults, incidents, or other issues that we should know about:

To keep up to date with One Trafford’s latest activities@OneTrafford

Outdoor fun and play Improvements and repairs to play areas in the borough continued. Throughout the pandemic, parks and play areas have become even more important and our teams have been hard at work to ensure residents can enjoy them safely.

With new safety measures in place, the team have been working on improving play areas; installing new surfacing and new equipment so that children and families can enjoy and use parks safely.

One of the play areas that has recently been improved includes Hendham Drive in Altrincham. The team have removed old surfacing underneath play equipment to make way for new safety surfacing. New safety surfacing was also installed at Longford Park’s under 8’s play area. At Longford Park’s second play area, damaged logs that were a part of the pick-up-sticks climbing frame have been replaced with new timbers.

Further improvements are scheduled to be made at Minster Drive Park for the repair and restoration of the play equipment. In Bramhall Close Park we replaced the multi-play unit, the tires of the tire swing, and implemented new safety surfacing. Along with this, we have refurbished other existing equipment at Bramhall Close Park with a fresh coat of paint.

Discover more about how we maintain parks and green spaces in Trafford at www.trafford.gov.uk/parkmaintenance.

Keeping you moving! More road repairs completed this spring!To start the year off, in January the team completed the surfacing of Glebelands Road in Sale. The old surface was removed up to a depth of 100mm before being replaced with fresh surfacing. A total of 1935m2 was resurfaced along Glebelands Road. The resurfacing of Arthog Road in Hale, covering a total of 1900m2, was completed shortly after. The combined total of resurfacing is the same as just over half the Manchester United football pitch.

The team removed overgrown vegetation along Roaring Gate Lane in preparation for works to go ahead in midsummer 2021.

Patching programme underway to protect your roads!Patching a surface means that a targeted section of road is cut away so that it can be resurfaced. These sections are much smaller than traditional resurfacing schemes, but it still helps to protect the condition of the road and increase its longevity.

In March, seven roads across the borough were identified for patching treatment. Roads included Great Stone Road, Marsland Road, Wallingford Road, Edge Lane and St. Margaret’s Road. A further 12 locations have been identified for patching improvements which are due to start later in the year.

Watch this space…Coming soon! The next highways capital programme for 2021-22 will be announced soon! We’ll be posting updates on www.trafford.gov.uk/traffordroads. Search #TraffordRoads to keep up to date with the latest highway news.

Great Stone Road