THE Pride of Bolton campaign to make the town a better place to live is now entering its third week.

Here, council leader Bob Howarth gives his rallying call, asking everyone to pull together to improve everyone's quality of life.

PRIDE of Bolton seems to be exactly the kind of campaign from which the borough will benefit as it prepares to go on the world stage with the Commonwealth Games.

The campaign is an important project which, while pointing to some of our faults, will also highlight the best of Bolton.

I would urge people to get involved in polishing up the town's image.

We all see people scrawling graffiti or dropping litter, some of us may even see a crime or vandalism being committed.

My message is don't ignore it -- do something and report it. If it's litter make sure it goes in a bin.

Every single one of us can become an ambassador for making Bolton better.

The council and its various partners from the private and public arenas have been working together for many years on a wide range of schemes and community projects.

They range from major environmental undertakings costing many thousands of pounds to small but vital neighbourhood schemes.

But they all jigsaw together to form the big picture and we need you, the people of Bolton, to put your part of the jigsaw in place.

There are problems, but there are also opportunities. The council and its partners have initiated a host of projects aimed at tackling them.

They range from organising anti-crime projects with the police, to tackling health problems with the Wigan and Bolton Health Authority.

The council is also continuing to plough money into private and council homes to improve the standard of living.

The various area forums established by the council are community-led and have some scope to spend on projects they see as important to their areas. It's part of the huge shift by the council to get even closer to the citizens of the town and I would like people attending the forums to think about the Pride of Bolton campaign when looking at their areas.

On a broader note I feel much has been achieved in recent years by reshaping town centre shopping scene and by creating shopper-friendly pedestrian areas in Farnworth and Westhoughton.

There's also the huge Middlebrook shopping and leisure complex, which is wonderfully complemented by the Wanderers' futuristic-looking stadium and the Bolton Arena -- which will host the whole of the Commonwealth Games badminton programme in Summer.

In the last few weeks we have heard about the success of our bid for EC funds.

This will help generate something like £60 million-worth of investment in new job opportunities, improved transport and travel integration. And will boost a long list of socially-desirable schemes across the borough.

Underpinning all of this, of course, is the number of jobs that have been and will be created.

This will continue to be a major item on our agenda.

We are also investing in tomorrow's workforce and will try to boost for our schools.

New ones have been built and much-needed extensions are helping improve subjects such as IT. Much of this progress would not have been possible without our partnerships initiative composed of people from across the borough's business and other sectors.

It has brought in a fresh wave of expertise to complement the services we can offer as a local authority.

The message is clear: we can do it if we work together. So do your bit to help and be proud of Bolton.