SPRINGS clean! That was a Bury estate which was the focus for a community clean-up at the weekend thanks to a hardy band of volunteers.

And the event, held on the town's Springs Estate, also saw bulbs being planted in the area.

Staff from Barclays Bank put down their pens and picked up spades and wheelbarrows when they joined residents in the clean-up day held at Prestbury Close on Saturday. The event was part of a Make a Difference Day.

The Prestbury Close Garden Project has attracted funds through Barclays and SiteSavers, a major national environmental regeneration programme.

The initiative is funded by the bank and managed by Groundwork, in partnership with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) and the Wildlife Trusts.

Improvements at Prestbury Close are being implemented by Groundwork Bury Environments for the Community project and the Springs Project as part of the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) 5 East Bury initiative and in partnership with the Springs Tenant Management Co-operative.

Local residents and Barclays staff joined Groundwork project officers and the Springs Project in planting bulbs and cleaning the communal garden area. This is ahead of a programme of environmental improvements scheduled to begin shortly.

The clean-up was part of Make a Difference Day, the biggest day of volunteering in the UK which encouraged people to take action to make their neighbourhoods a better place to live.

More than 700 Barclays and SiteSavers projects have been delivered across the UK since 1996, bringing derelict land back into use on inner city housing estates, on the edge of towns and in the heart of rural communities.