CLAIRE Drury is aiming to clean up in her new role as she leads the Pendle Pride initiative to make the area a better place to live.

Reporter JEREMY RICHARDS spoke to the philosophy graduate to find out more about her vision for a brighter future.

BE proud of Pendle! That's the message from the woman facing the challenge of cleaning up the borough's grot spots.

Claire Drury has just nine months to clean up Pendle's act and make people think twice before they throw litter on the floor.

It's a dirty job but someone has to do it!

She aims to start young by contacting every primary school in the area to try and get the "tidy up" message across to children. A well-kept school award scheme is in the pipeline to encourage youngsters to keep their playgrounds and areas around their school clean and tidy.

Claire, 23, is employed by the Tidy Britain Group and works with Pendle Council. Pendle Pride, launched by the council to tackle grimy issues such as litter, dog dirt and street cleansing, aims to make the borough a cleaner place to live.

"You can't make people clean up their communities," she admitted. What I want to do is encourage them to take a pride in their surroundings and show people how they can benefit from not littering."

Claire was brought up in Kelbrook and caught the litter-busting bug early despite the lack of a litter problem in the village. She now lives in Waterside, Colne.

"I was always taught to be careful with litter and not just throw it on the ground," she said. Claire went to Kelbrook Primary School, West Craven High, Barnoldswick, and then on to Nelson and Colne College. After completing a philosophy degree at Leeds University, Claire did voluntary work for environmental groups before returning to Pendle and working at Just Dust in Colne, a group that promoted environmentally-friendly and fair trade with the Third World. When Just Dust folded she joined the Tidy Britain Group and was given a fixed-term contract to work with Pendle Council until next May. "In a way it's quite a daunting task but it's a really worthhile project," she added.

"I'll be working with children using litter awareness workshops. I want them to learn about the benefits of keeping their school tidy."

Parish and town councils and other community groups have also been contacted to forge partnerships in the fight against grime.

Claire is eager to point out that Pendle in general is a tidy place to live.

Annual surveys by the council under Tidy Britain guidelines show the message is sinking in. The latest study showed Pendle is cleaner than it has been since the surveys started eight years ago.

Town centre streets are swept daily, often by the council's latest investment in street cleaning, a ride-on motorised sweeper. Special "gum busting" equipment using a pressurised water jet has been used in Nelson and other centres, a blitz on back streets has helped stop them being used as a dumping ground, and letters have gone out to residents urging them not to leave bin bags out for days in advance of collection to avoid them splitting open.

Pendle offers households a free collection service for bulkier items of rubbish such as settees or other furniture that needs to be got rid of. Claire strongly supports the service and councillors' fight to keep it free. "If we started charging people just wouldn't use the service and the fly-tipping problem would be horrendous," she added.

The Pendle Pride initiative has been entered into the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's Grimewatch competition which rewards environmentally friendly schemes.

GRIME BUSTERS: Pendle Pride officer Claire Drury is all smiles in her new grot spot job, and (top) is welcomed by principal waste management officer Bryan Thompson (left) and Pendle Services committee chairman Frank Clifford