A BURY councillor who is leader of the North West Regional Assembly hopes a global summit currently being staged could act as a key "wake up" call.

That's the hope of Councillor Derek Boden who is also anxious that more people in the region become involved in enabling sound ideas to be put into action.

And the Assembly's ambitious sustainability agenda, which is being delivered by a network of local authority officers throughout the region, is being thrown into the spotlight by events at the World Summit on Sustainable Development which concludes on September 4.

Many local councils and communities in the North West are awaiting the outcome of the summit with great interest.

The Johannesburg Summit will mark ten years since the first landmark Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro. Ripples from Rio were felt throughout the world and have led to a small but growing number of grassroots projects and programmes in this region.

Many local environments have been improved with the involvement of local people and a number of schools have been involved in the drive to educate the young about sustainability.

Jobs and training opportunities have also been created for the unemployed through innovative community business schemes while many businesses have been encouraged to act for sustainability through various projects

The leader of the North West Regional Assembly, Coun Derek Boden said: "It is important that we celebrate the progress that has been made locally, but we must realise that this is really just the tip of the iceberg.

"The Johannesburg Summit should act as a wake-up call. Far more people need to get involved and start helping to translate our local agendas into local action."