IT WAS police advice to cut back most of
the bushes and shrubs surrounding St Michael and All Angels’ in Preston,
Blackburn diocese.
They had provided cover for the vandals
and petty criminals stealing lead from the roof, breaking the windows, spraying
graffiti and even threatening the new Vicar, the Revd Rick Bunday.
But clearing the extensive church grounds
is a good community project in any case, says Mr Bunday. The church stands at
the corner of two busy roads, and, while the large cedar and beech trees will
be left, the grounds are to be landscaped.
The work of clearing has already started,
and is being done by half a dozen men on community-service orders.
“They are working very hard,” he says;
“and all the shrubs and undergrowth are being fed into shredders and returned
to mulch the ground.” The PCC has yet to decide on the landscaping plan.