Latest news from the borough council:

Earlier in the year, we launched our 'Recycling Superhero' poster competition asking primary school aged children across West Lancashire to design posters for the side of our new waste and recycling collection vehicles.

This was as a result of the overwhelming support our Environmental Services team received as key-workers during the pandemic, and we asked for designs that would inspire others to recycle more.

By the time the application period closed in March, we'd received over 50 entries from 11 primary schools across the Borough.

The task of judging them fell to former Mayor, Councillor Terry Aldridge, portfolio holder for Street Scene Councillor Kevin Wilkie, and Russell Markstein representing Riverside Truck Rental (providers of our new fleet of refuse collection vehicles).

We now have two winners and six runners-up; over the past two weeks representatives from the Council have been visiting the runners-up to present them with art sets as their prizes, and the two competition winners from St. Anne's Catholic Primary School and Mere Brow C.E. Primary School were excited to be presented with their prizes by the current Mayor of West Lancashire, Councillor Gordon Johnson, Councillor Wilkie, Russell Markstein, and representatives from the Council's Waste Management team.

Classmates of the two winners also joined in to celebrate their great achievement and to hear a brief presentation about the importance of recycling. The two winners each received a tablet funded by Riverside, along with a large, full-colour print of their winning design.

Councillor Kevin Wilkie, portfolio holder for Street Scene, said: "Congratulations to all the children who entered this fantastic competition. The creativity they have shown has been wonderful to see and choosing the winners was really difficult.

"I feel hopeful about the future when I see young people get enthusiastically involved in an initiative like this that focusses on the environment and the challenges we face with climate change. I hope people listen to their messages and will think more critically about the choices they are making when it comes to protecting the environment."

Keep your eyes peeled for the winning designs on our vehicles on your grey bin collection days!