The 8-year-old armed with a strimmer who took matters into his own hands

An eight-year-old in Oldham has taken matters into his own hands to make his area safer and cleaner.

Thomas, who lives with his parents and two siblings in Chadderton, had enough of the overgrown and litter-plagued backalleys in his neighbourhood.

When he was just five years old he started litter-picking and gardening in public spaces. But recently, he’s had to ramp up his mission considerably, following complaints in the neighbourhood that the council ‘weren’t keeping up’ with maintenance of green spaces and alleys in the area.

Thomas’ Mum, Rebecca, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The walkway we did last week – we used to be able to walk down that no problems. But in the past couple of months it’s been getting harder and harder, especially with a pram.

“The first time we did it, we just had a pair of scissors and I had to take it off him because I was getting stung head to toe and didn’t want him to get hurt.”

Armed with a miniature strimmer recently bought by the community through a crowdfunder, the young plant enthusiast tackles public spaces ‘whenever he can’.

“It makes a big difference [to the community],” Rebecca explained. “When we first did the library area, more people suddenly started coming there there, walking their dogs and so on.

“[Thomas] absolutely loves doing it. And he thrives on praise.”

And Thomas has big ambitions. Asked why he loved cleaning up the nighbourhood, the young’un said: “I love to save people and the world.

“And with the nettles, I just want to kill them so no one gets stung.”

His dream is to create a community garden in Chadderton where locals can grow fruit and veg so that people ‘have a nice place to go’. The family is running a crowdfunder to raise the funds for more tools and projects.

But Thomas’ ambition hasn’t been without its challenges.

“We did have a break because he was getting criticism online,” Rebecca said. People had commented blaming the young boy if areas were dirty or overgrown because ‘Thomas hasn’t been there for a while’.

“It annoyed me that people were saying ‘Can you do this area? And this area?’ but wouldn’t actually come and help themselves,” Rebecca said “We used to get a lot of helpers.”

The family has appealed to local community members and the council to lend a helping hand.

“You need to help us get rid of the nettles and rubbish,” Thomas said.

Coun Chris Goodwin, Cabinet Member for Don’t Trash Oldham, called the eight-year-old ‘a credit to the borough’.

“It’s a shame other people don’t follow his example,” Goodwin said. “Everyone should dispose of their waste properly rather than expect others to do it for them. We’d have a cleaner and greener Oldham if people did.”

Responding to complaints about the council’s own services, Goodwin added: “Our Don’t Trash Oldham environmental teams are out across the borough every day cleaning up and making environmental improvements but they are a small team and we can’t be everywhere at once. We’d like to do much more but we don’t have the resources to do it.

“Issues with our weed spraying contractor, plus the wet but warm weather, has meant some weeds have overgrown. But we’ve got back on top of things by bringing the service back inhouse.”

He noted that people interested in helping to clean up their local areas should check the Don’t Trash Oldham page on the council website.