TWO years after winning a fight to have a footpath near their homes put on the map a group of Leigh pensioners have been having a brush with the council over who should clean it.

Following a stalemate with the council, five members of the battling band of senior citizens, all in their 70s, took on the task themselves.

Armed with shovels and brushes the five - Harry Hodgson, 79, Tom Boardman, 79, Reggie Hayward, Mrs. B. Gillespie and Cliff Ashcroft, 70 - scraped up enough energy to tackle the near impassable footpath, now officially designated 'Footpath 221A', which runs between Milnes Avenue and Chestnut Drive South.

Tom Boardman of Milnes Avenue, who was at the heart of the campaign in 1995 for recognition of the path, said: "After all the requests, applications and telephone calls to the Borough Engineer to clean up the disgraceful condition of the footpath some of us got fed up and decided to do it ourselves.

"We have come to the conclusion that the so-called 'Caring Borough' was not caring at all and we cleared the almost impassable public footpath of trees, bushes and weeds. What are we coming to?"

A council spokesman commented: "After a long battle this footpath was finally put on the map but we did tell protesters at the time that we had no legal duty to maintain it, and with a limited maintenance budget we regret that there are no plans to take on the maintenance of this particular path."

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