TWO residents of Barrow’s Raglan Court estate have been praised by the Borough Council following their clean-up of their area.

Mandy Anderson was joined by Larry Vincent, both residents of the estate, in acquiring a skip from the Barrow Borough Council Housing Department in order to clean up sets of furniture that had been discarded outside their flats.

Mandy and Larry are neighbours who had often seen pieces of litter dumped illegally on their street.

WELL DONE: Mandy Anderson and Larry Vincent have been thanked by the Barrow Borough Council (Facebook: Barrow Borough Council Housing Department)

WELL DONE: Mandy Anderson and Larry Vincent have been thanked by the Barrow Borough Council (Facebook: Barrow Borough Council Housing Department)

For their efforts the council housing department granted them both £30 worth in vouchers and a message of gratitude for their work.

Mandy said: “I was born and bred in Barrow. I’ve spent all 63 years of my life here, save a few years in Coventry when I was at boarding school.

“Larry lives in the next block of flats where I live.

“My daughter also lives in his block of flats so that’s how we knew each other.

“I met him and his wife after they moved in a few years ago.

“There has been a lot of things dumped around Raglan Court.

“A lot of it has been furniture, and other large things like that.

CLEAN UP: The litter cleared up by Mandy and Larry

CLEAN UP: The litter cleared up by Mandy and Larry

“I don’t think it’s coming from the people inside the court, more likely it’s people who come at night from outside and dump it there.

“It’s terrible and we decided there was something we could do about it.

“I’m chair of the Tenants Forum in Barrow so we were able to arrange with the housing office to get a skip delivered to our area so I could get some people together to throw the furniture they didn’t want inside.

“In the end though it was just me, Larry and my husband.

“But that’s it took to take care of it all.

“We just wanted to clean the area up a little. It’s home and you want your home to look nice.

“We got loads done in the end.

“We did originally have it planned to do it as a once off but if it ever happens again, we’ll be doing it again.

“The vouchers we got were for £30 each and I’d like to invest that back in the community. There is a community garden so I’d like to buy some plants for the bedding part. I’ve been a volunteer for the past 14 years and am looking forward to doing more when Covid is over.”