CLEANING up a Kearsley estate promises to be child's play for a group of young volunteers.

Dozens of teenagers turned up at Roosevelt Road Community Centre on the Grosvenor estate as part of a deal done with older residents.

Their task was to collect litter around the area, cleaning up the environment. And in return for the clean up, the older members of the community are now duty bound to campaign for play equipment.

Stephen Tonge, chairman of the Grosvenor Estate Residents Association, said: "A total of 26 children and 11 adults met at the community centre on Roosevelt Road. The weather was atrocious but it didn't dampen the spirits.

"The effort was made over two days and we split up into groups of six to eight with at least one adult per group to supervise.

"We concentrated our efforts around the inner area of the estate slowly working out and spent about two hours each day picking up litter.

"A skip was placed at the community centre and we carried bags of rubbish to it. We were treated to hot dogs and drinks later by the elderly members of the estate which was good because it brought both groups closer together.

He said during the last couple of years there had been distrust between old and young on the estate.

But he added: "As the day wore on a mutual respect developed which was great to see. Now it is up to us to stick to our end of the bargain.

"We hope to start filling out the forms for grants and would particularly like to raise the cash to buy a half pipe, used for skateboarding.

"The positive comments from residents as we carried out the clean up were encouraging and certainly showed that if we all pull together we can improve things."