VOLUNTEERS swapped business suits for grafters' gear to help create community woodland.
More than 60 Co-operative Insurance Society staff from Manchester gathered on the outskirts of Leigh and mucked in with Forestry Commission workers and conservationists to help tidy up the green oasis which links Gin Pit, Higher Folds and Tyldesley.
The CIS's Information Services and Compliance departments employees sweated it out on the former colliery spoil heaps, which were reclaimed for agricultural use and are being transformed into a community woodland. At 131 hectares, it is the largest community woodland area in the Red Rose Forest. The CIS volunteers will be helping to tidy up the site as part of a National Environment Action Day, organised by Business in the Community (BIC), which is part-sponsored by the Co-op.
Lisa Foden, community liaison officer for the Forestry Commission, which is managing the work on the site, said: "It's all systems go at Higher Folds.
"We've got contractors on site carrying out a major footpath restoration scheme to resurface more than three miles of public rights of way, so already the area is starting to take shape.
"But there's still a lot more work to be done to tidy the woodlands and grasslands. We were delighted when the CIS workers volunteered to help."
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