A YOUNGSTER whose hard work will help transform local woodland will receive a special thank-you at tonight's (Tues Sept 10) meeting of Whitefield and Unsworth Area Board.

Eight-year-old James Hulme was recently awarded the national BBC Wildlife Young Environmental Champions Award for a project focusing on Goshen Woods in Bury.

The Oldham schoolboy is a frequent visitor to the woods during visits to his grandparents who live in nearby Unsworth and his prize is £2,500 to spend on improving the area.

Added to that, £2,000 from the area board kickstart fund and some extra funding will mean the woods will benefit from a £6,000 makeover.

Area board co-ordinator, Rose De, said: "James is only eight years old but he was involved in an initial clean up day of Goshen Woods. He went on to do a project on how the area could be made better and he won not only the regional competition, but the national one as well."

Rose said the money would be well spent on improving footpaths, installing seating and providing extra fencing.

And as a special thank-you to James, the area board chairman, Coun Alan Matthews, will be making a presentation to him this evening.

The meeting will be held at Ribble Drive Primary School in Whitefield from 7pm.

It will also feature an open forum session for people to voice their concerns about local issues and on the agenda will be ward boundary changes, local policing and kick start funding.

Coun Matthews said: "We are also reporting back on the Victoria Estate home zones open day organised by Victoria TRA. This was a successful event, particularly in building links with local people and it certainly encouraged them to start putting forward their ideas for improving the estate. Now we need to discuss where we go next."