MAPPING out the future got a boost on Saturday when Mayor and Mayoress Cllr Ken and Mrs Joan Pye launched a parish map project in Leigh.

They are backing Soroptomist International's drive for a national network of local maps pinpointing all that is good and bad about areas.

Now they want locals with a strong community interest to help put their parish on the map.

Soroptomists say: "Making a Parish Map can help people come together to chart the things they value in their own locality.

"We need a better democracy - more local, more pliable, more responsive - and it is we who have to forge it. Making a Parish Map offers a way of getting started.

"If we don't look after our environment now, what will it be like to live in the 21st century?"

The map may be woven, printed, knitted, drawn, painted, filmed, animated, performed and written. It will eventually be donated to the borough for the Millennium.

Existing maps charted in other parts were shown at the local launch in Leigh's Derby Room.

Local businesses and organisations are backing the project which gives locals the chance of having a say in the development of their own backyard.

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