A Clayton-le-Woods councillor recently swapped the council chamber for a former war-torn African country.

Coun Greg Morgan, who represents Clayton-le-Woods and Whittle-le-Woods, spent two weeks at the Conservative Party’s Project Umubano, teaching English as a foreign language to a group of local teachers.

He said: “It was an experience. The invitation was sent out by the Conservative Party central office and because I have never really done anything like this before, I felt it was time to give something back.

“My employers, BAE Systems, were very good and granted me special leave which allowed me to take up the invitation. "You meet a lot of new friends while you are out there and you can really see the benefits that a project like this has.”

Before setting off to Africa, Coun Morgan and the other volunteers, who all funded the trip themselves, were given a one-day crash course in teaching English as a foreign language.

The plight of Rwanda shocked Britain in 1994 when genocide led to a 800,000 people being killed.

Coun Morgan, who lives in Swallow Court in Clayton-le-Woods with his wife Jocelyn, added: “Fourteen years is not a long time but they have been making great strides in the last decade.

“We worked with descendants of the those who suffered during the genocide and it was an eye-opener.