Atherton Online

Local children have expressed their artistic talent in a competition to design a crime and burglary awareness postcard for Greater Manchester Police and Wigan Council. 

Youngsters in years 5-6 from St Georges Church of England Primary School, Meadow Bank Primary School and New Greenhall Primary School, Atherton, all had a go at creating images and slogans that would catch the eye of local residents. 

Talented winner Connor Greenhalgh (of year 5 New Greenhall Primary School) designed a postcard reminding people to keep their personal possessions safe and his message focused on the theft of laptops. 

School pupils from Atherton were advised about how to keep their homes and belongings safe. 

PCSOs visited year 6 classes in St Georges Church of England Primary School and in Meadow Bank Primary School, to help pupils avoid becoming victims of crime and become a Junior Crime Fighter. 

Youngsters were asked to take home and fill in a short survey with questions about how security conscious they are in the home when it comes to locking doors and windows and what steps to take when going on holiday. 
Completed surveys were all entered into a prize draw to win an MP3 player. Pupils were also given a UV security-marking pen to mark personal property and they were each presented with a certificate for taking part. 

Well it's Easter weekend and all is quiet in Atherton it seems. As is often the case on days like these I decided to browse the internet for things of interest and stumbled upon these pictures taken from, and of, or own Parish Church tower by a photographer who's flickr username is Mr Dayglo. Looks like they were only taken at the beginning of last month and they're excellent photographs. I never knew there was an art room halfway up there. I especially like the tilt-shift pictures that transform Atherton into a toytown.

So if you've a few minutes to spare, take a look and as always, please let us know your thoughts in the comments at the bottom of this article. Click on the images to see a bigger version.

All pictures are from the flickr set Atherton Parish Church and are © All rights reserved

YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD, YOUR POLICE

Neighbourhood Policing puts officers right at the heart of communities where they can respond to local concerns and make neighbourhoods safer places to live.

The Leigh / Atherton Neighbourhood Policing Team covers the following areas:

Leigh, Lowton and Golborne

Atherton, Tyldesley and Astley Mosley Common

Homeaccess.org is a government initiative to get low income families online. Now, I see the irony of this post being online and so not viewable by the very people that could make use of it, but if you know somebody who would benefit, maybe you could let them know! May be a public computer I suppose... anyway, this is a bit of blurb from the website: 

Obviously with the weather getting so much colder, people are using their heating appliances more which could result in carbon monoxide related incidents. This toxic gas can be emitted by any faulty fuel burning appliance and is caused by incomplete combustion. So for example, if you had a portable gas fire burning in a non-ventilated room, the oxygen in the room would gradually be used up and replaced by carbon dioxide (CO₂).

The Health and Wellbeing Scheme is a 12 month pilot project co-ordinated by Wigan and Leigh Housing and funded by Supporting People.  Starting in January 2009, the project aims to further increase the quality of life of Older people across all tenures of the Hag Fold and Atherton area through the development of a programme of stimulating events and activities and by working in partnership with other agencies. The service has been set up to:

• ensure that people are receiving the benefits they are entitled to by working with advice agencies in the Wigan area.
• offer a range of different organised social activities and events which are aimed at increasing enjoyment, leisure and learning opportunities.
• offer healthy living initiatives such as exercise
• provide information to older people on staying safe and secure within their homes to reduce the risk of accidents and increase their independence.
• offer opportunities to older people to get involved and make a positive contribution.

Diggnation is an American, internet show, that reports on stories featured on the social news website digg.com. And I'm pleased to report that Atherton has been officially featured and internationally recognised for the Atherton (I thought we had natural selection for this)  bomber. This show is watched by hundreds of thousands of people every week, and the site is visited my millions. Please join me in being proud of this moment...

There's a website I looked up called fixmystreet.com, I sent them an e-mail telling them that two street lights weren't working and a week later they were both fixed.

Try it for your local problems and help get Atherton patched up, you never know!