Episode 11 Call the Council

From grappling with our daily grind...

Why have they suddenly decided to dump all this waste in other people's bins?

..to unearthing the extraordinary.

Wow, it's Wigan's gold mask.

Battling those blighting the streets...

It's not acceptable, really.

..bringing the community together...

Hi, there. How are you doing?

..and being on hand in troubled times.

I've got kids. We can't even open bedroom windows because of the noise.

So it's affecting everything. Sleep, day-to-day living, really.

In this series, we follow front-line staff working for Wigan Council in

Greater Manchester.

I speak to the waste.

I sort of say to it, like, "Come on, talk to me.

"What have you got here?"

Like council officers across the country,

they are keeping us free from harm...

You're looking at really serious injury or possibly death.

..stepping in to try and solve our problems...

I mean, it's constant.

He'll be told today that we will be serving notice.

..and responding to residents...

-Much appreciate what you're doing, anyway.

-..when they...

What was the enquiry today?

..call the council.

Coming up - fly-tippers flouting the law pose a problem

for council officers.

There was a broken sheet of asbestos just on top.

We all know about asbestos and how dangerous that is.

History and heroes combine as the council names new streets.

Alfred was a local lad.

Did a daring act of bravery for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

So that's why we have named the street after Alfred Wilkinson.

A decade of public service comes to an emotional end

for one council employee.

I'll sadly miss it.

I will. I'll miss the kids, too.

And while council and residents go on the run...

Ladies and gentlemen, we are looking for a young gentleman...

..officers step in to track down a missing person.

That was Central Watch who look

after all of our cameras in the town centre.

We'll find him.

It is the duty of the UK's 433 local authorities and over two million

council employees to ensure that the infrastructure of all our cities,

towns and villages run smoothly and efficiently.

Trying to balance the books and making best use of the public purse in

Wigan is environmental enforcement officer Alex Kay.

I feel really responsible as an enforcement officer

to make sure that we are providing a good service

to the council taxpayers within Wigan,

to ensure that they are living in a clean and safe and happy borough.

In a few days, Alex will be joining his fellow Wiganers in the borough's

annual 10K run.

But even off the council clock and pounding the pavements in preparation,

the bane of his life and the scourge blighting boroughs nationwide isn't

far from Alex's mind.

fly-tipping.

I think it's really important that we, as a local authority,

are seen to be doing something about this. Putting people to book,

prosecuting people and putting the message out there that we are doing something about it.

It won't be tolerated and that if you do

come into Wigan and you do fly-tip your waste,

they will be looking for you.

fly-tipping is a criminal offence.

Anyone who dumps rubbish illegally could face a fine of up to £50,000.

But depending on the case, if taken to Crown Court,

fines can be unlimited,

and offenders can be imprisoned for up to five years.

Alex has received a call about a large amount of rubbish

dumped next to a railway bridge.

As you can see, this waste has all been bagged up.

And it's basically rubble and rubbish.

Roof tiles. Empty silicone bottles.

Builder's gloves.

Earlier, Alex made a dangerous discovery.

There was actually...

..a broken sheet of asbestos just about here this morning,

which I noticed when I came through, just on top.

It was broken up. So obviously we all know about asbestos and how

dangerous that is.

Asbestos can cause serious respiratory problems and is a risk to public health.

So the council has paid to have it taken away.

We've had to actually get a company to come in

and remove that asbestos this afternoon.

They've come in with, you know, a specialist contractor.

And you're talking a good few hundred pounds

that it has cost Wigan Council to get that contractor to come in to remove that waste.

As a resident, you have the right to take your domestic refuse

to a local tip for free.

Any commercial venture must pay for this disposal service.

But as profit margins fall, incidents of fly-tipping rise.

This waste has been put here for us to go and clear it up.

Because they don't want to pay for it.

As the rubbish is not covering the pavement, but land to the side of it,

Alex suspects that it's on private land,

so it would be the owner's responsibility to clear it away.

The recycling tax, I think, is between £85 and £100 per tonne.

So you know, by the time we have sent a crew down here

with a sufficient-sized lorry to pick it up...

You know, two or three lads to get it in the back of the van,

you're looking at a couple of hours' work.

Then the recycling tax on top.

So it all adds up, and it's all money that Wigan Council has to pay,

or the council taxpayer of Wigan has to fund.

Having dealt with the hazardous asbestos,

Alex turns his attention to tracking down who might have dumped the waste.

There is actually a CCTV camera on the shop across the road.

So I am just going to nip into there now and see whether they've got any footage.

If the shop's camera has caught anyone dumping the waste,

it could be used as evidence in any case brought against them.

I was hoping to go back over your CCTV to see if we can have a look,

who has actually dumped it there.

Yeah, the CCTV...

-Have a look and...

-So it's the top there?

You can see that much, yeah.

You can see the top right-hand corner there -

that is actually covering the area that I need.

Scrolling through the footage,

it doesn't take long to discover when the offence took place.

2:20am on Monday, the waste is there.

So at some point between...

..midnight Sunday and 2:20am on Monday.

So that's at 9:12am on Monday, 15 September.

Yeah, you can see the gentleman dumping the waste.

But there is a hitch.

Unfortunately the CCTV isn't of the quality that will allow us to identify people.

It's not the breakthrough Alex was hoping for.

Without evidence, there's not really a lot we can do.

We are relying on witnesses and members of the public to come forward and

provide us with evidence.

And people don't want to live in neighbourhoods,

and environments with waste dumped all over the place.

The council is getting called out all the time,

asking to come out and remove waste and stuff like that.

So that is why it is important that we do...

Members of the public can help us,

and we work together to make Wigan a cleaner place to live.

Coming up - more CCTV footage offers Alex a fresh lead.

You can just about make him out starting to unload the waste.

There are over 26 million homes and

almost 250,000 miles of road in the UK.

Every house needs an address, and every street needs a name.

In Wigan, it is David Heyes' job

to decide what they are going to be called.

Whenever a new street is built,

David has a new set of challenges to address.

My job at the council is to name streets and create addresses.

People just assume your addresses come from somewhere,

and street names, and road names just appear.

So it's a little known function.

And there is a small group of us nationwide.

So we are very dedicated, making sure we get this right.

Today David has come to Pennington Wharf,

a large new estate being built on the site of an old colliery in Leigh.

Covering 18 hectares and accommodating almost 500 homes when finished,

David has his work cut out to deliver.

It's a very big estate, this.

I think it's in the region of probably about 40, 50 new street names,

over maybe a five or six year period.

And this is only the start of it.

As you can see, we've already got residents living in these properties here.

We need to get a name plate up here as quickly as possible.

No street names could mean no emergency services, no mail,

pizza delivery or bin collection.

The dustbin collection, we were missed for three weeks.

People, when they visit, they've been coming back, turning around,

going back again and going back each street just to find our house.

When they phoned us, "You're not in the sat-nav.

"We can't recognise your postcode in the sat-nav," so lots of places are not recognisable.

When we had the midwives coming round and the health visitors, they didn't know where it was,

even though I gave them the street name, they couldn't find us.

They ended up near the sales office and we had to go out and meet them each time.

But David's on the case.

Just here we're going to need a street nameplate,

and then over on the other side,

we're going to have to duplicate that nameplate

by putting another one in the ground here that's visible from traffic approaching that way.

Simple, really.

David's got quite a job on his hands.

With dozens of streets to name,

he heads to the council's archive to search for inspiration.

With records dating back 800 years and over two million books and

documents at his disposal, David is hoping that,

by researching in the area's past,

he can find some fitting place names to herald a new era.

The rich coal seams in and around Wigan fuelled the Industrial Revolution.

As technology developed, so did coal production.

20 million tonnes of coal were produced by 100,000 Lancashire mines at the

start of the 20th century.

One of these was Bickershaw colliery,

which is now the site of the new housing estate.

And it's the starting point for David's research.

Helping him is local studies librarian Rita Musa.

Bickershaw Colliery, quite a few entries there.

What's that telling us, then?

In 1932 there was a cage accident, 19 men killed.

The disaster at Bickershaw colliery in 1932, where 19 men died,

led to a relief fund being set up by the Mayor of Leigh.

He made an appeal to the nation, asking them to help the widows,

children and dependents of the men who lost their lives.

-That's a big book.

-Yeah, it certainly is.

The Colliery Guardian, 1932.

-They've got the names of the miners.

-Wow, this is what I really need.

This is exactly where the housing estate is going.

This is great, Rita.

This whole site is steeped in history.

And what we're going to get with a new housing development is a complete new generation.

What I don't want is the new generation to forget the past.

The history of the mining community and the people who worked hard

and toiled hard down the coal mines to make this area as it is today.

These are all parts of the history of the site

that we need to remember for the future generations.

David's research also reveals something even more unexpected about one

very special miner.

As well as miners who worked in this colliery,

I've come across a gent who won the Victoria Cross in the First World War.

Alfred Wilkinson.

The Victoria Cross is Britain's highest award for bravery in the face of the enemy.

On 20 October 1918, during an attack at Marou, France,

four men were killed in succession trying to deliver a very important message.

Despite their deaths,

Private Wilkinson volunteered to run the errand.

He made the 600-yard dash under heavy shell and machine-gun fire.

Against all odds, he succeeded.

Here's a guy who went to war, served his country,

won the highest accolade with the Victoria Cross,

came back, worked down the dirty mines, sadly died there.

The least the council can do is honour this guy with a new street name and

erect a special name plaque to show that he won the Victoria Cross.

This estate is going to be built in a number of phases.

Phase 1 will include a nice central road area,

that I think it would be wholly appropriate to name after a Victoria Cross winner.

And to commemorate him,

we will commission a special gold Victoria Cross nameplate to be erected on site.

Coming up - David helps commemorate Wigan's war hero.

But the task requires a steady hand.

-Just slowly peel it back.

-I'm very nervous.

I don't want to get this one wrong.

From commemorating heroes of the past,

to saying goodbye to heroes of the present.

School crossing patrolman Ted Williams

has been keeping the children of Wigan safe for over ten years,

and today is his last day.

I'll sadly miss it, I will.

I'll miss the kids too.

I don't want to get too emotional.

# Lollipop, Lollipop

# Oh, Lolli, Lolli, Lolli

# Lollipop, Lollipop... #

Local councils introduced school crossing patrols in 1953, and their role is vital.

Tragically, every year,

around 2,000 children are involved in serious accidents

on the roads in Britain.

These numbers would be considerably higher if it wasn't for the UK's

lollipop men and women.

Ta, love.

Come rain or shine, over the years,

Ted has seen the children safely across the road.

I'll miss the kids.

Seeing them go from here to high school and leave high school.

Ted has taken his responsibilities very seriously,

but has also become a friend to these children,

their parents and the teachers at this school.

Ta, love. Bye, pal.

Thanks very much.

And today, it seems like everyone's got a present for him.

I haven't got enough hands here!

With a heavy heart but a boot full of gifts and cards,

Ted's morning shift is over.

But instead of heading home,

today Ted is the guest of honour at a very special assembly.

Boys and girls, look this way, please.

Shhh!

OK, good afternoon, children.

-ALL:

-Good afternoon, Mrs Middleton.

Good afternoon, everybody.

And why are we here today? What's our special reason?

Ted's going to leave.

Ted's leaving us.

We've done an assembly today for Ted

because he's been with us a long time.

He's helped our children cross the road safely for years,

so we thought it would be nice to mark the end of his work

with the council with a nice assembly for him.

Do you want to show Ted what you've got?

That's a card they've made for you.

'He's part of their lives, he's part of our school community,'

the children love seeing him every morning.

They talk about him all the time.

They know he's going to be there when they come to school in the morning

and when they go home in the evening.

You know, he's played a massive part in their childhood.

He is very special to them, so I think he'll be greatly missed.

Have you got anything you want to say to all these lovely children, Ted?

I've enjoyed working with you kids,

crossing you all the time I've been here.

You'll be sadly missed.

APPLAUSE

As the day draws to a close,

it's home time for the children and it's Ted's final shift.

Come on!

Ta-ra.

Ta-ra. See you again.

Ta-ra.

Yeah. Ta-ra, lad. Ta, lad.

See you again.

Ta-ra. See you again.

It's the end of an era for Ted.

See you, lad.

See you again. Ta-ra.

That's your lot.

-That's it, Ted.

-That's it.

All done.

Kept them in as much as I could.

Time to hand over the reins, in the form of a giant lollipop,

to his supervisor.

-You can have that.

-Hand over your lollipop stick.

But if retirement doesn't live up to Ted's expectations,

the council's door is always open for such a committed employee.

And remember, if you ever want these back, you'll be more than welcome.

Yeah, ta, love.

A new patrol person will take over after the summer holidays to carry on

the important job of keeping our kids safe when heading to and from school.

From heroes to villains.

Environmental enforcement officer Alex Kay has been investigating

a fly-tipping incident on the outskirts of Wigan.

This waste has been put here for us to go and clear it up because they

don't want to pay for it.

In a bid to find out who dumped the rubbish,

Alex has accessed some local CCTV footage.

Yeah, you can see the gentleman dumping the waste.

But he couldn't see the offenders clearly enough.

Unfortunately, the CCTV isn't of the quality that will allow us to

identify people.

Now, a few weeks into the investigation, Alex has a fresh lead.

A local recycling centre reported that it had to turn a man away after

they found asbestos in waste he had brought to the depot to recycle.

Given that asbestos was also found in the rubbish dump by the roadside,

it's led Alex to think that the two incidents might be related.

So this is the vehicle arriving at the waste recycling centre.

The first thing they did was we got the automatic numberplate

recognition, which gave us the details of the van that had gone in.

That gave us the licence number.

It transpired that the van had been hired to a man called Shahzad Chishti,

who has been renovating a property near the location of the fly-tipped waste.

You can just about make out Mr Chishti starting to unload the waste.

In most local authorities,

anyone using a van to dispose of rubbish at a public tip

requires a free permit from their council.

This is so the council can ensure the only waste being dumped is domestic.

So it's just at this point now where one of the waste recycling operatives

has started to question the driver of the vehicle about the type of waste.

Mr Chishti had a permit, but it was in someone else's name.

He said that he was unaware that the rubbish contained asbestos,

and it was only spotted when operatives at the centre inspected the waste.

As a result, he was turned away.

He's closed the back doors of the van

with it still quite full, and gets into the vehicle and drives away.

Alex has requested a meeting with Mr Chishti...

..who's converting an old pub into flats near the railway bridge where the rubbish has been dumped.

They've got concerns. They think it's actually come from my building

because of the construction stuff, and I'm trying to say it hasn't.

So I'm here with my receipts to...

..show that I've been disposing of my rubbish responsibly.

Mr Chishti has travelled from London for today's meeting with Alex.

The reason for the interview,

it's for him to put his point of view across

and for him to tell us anything he thinks is relevant.

It's annoying to drive up for four hours just...

..to say that you haven't done something.

Still to come - Alex is under pressure from the locals to get the rubbish removed.

It's really bad because...

Near enough everybody who walks past, everybody who lives around here,

they're complaining about it, saying,

"When is it going to be shifted?"

A local war hero is commemorated in gold.

Just slowly peel it back.

Very nervous. Don't want to get this one wrong.

Try and get this to work.

And, in the early hours of Sunday morning,

the race is on to get Wigan readied for 3,000 fun-runners.

The show will go on.

A new estate is being built in the borough of Wigan,

but life is tricky for residents living on streets without a name.

The dustbin collection, we were missed for three weeks.

When they phoned us up, "Oh, you're not in the sat-nav.

"We can't recognise your postcode."

When we had the midwives coming round and the health visitors,

again they didn't know where it was.

But Address Management Officer David Heyes, who names new roads,

made an inspirational discovery.

Here's a guy who went to war, served his country,

won the highest accolade with the Victoria Cross.

The least the council can do is honour this guy with a new street name and

erect a special name plaque to show that he won the Victoria Cross.

Today, David is visiting the council's sign shop

to help put the finishing touches

to Wigan war hero Alfred Wilkinson's specially designed gold street sign.

From small "No Parking" notices to 5-metre square road signs,

the sign shop produce around 2,500 signs a year.

That's around 50 a week.

But this gold street sign commemorating a Victoria Cross hero

is one of their most important yet.

From discovering all the research to getting the name approved,

to actually seeing it being made, it's really rewarding and pleasing.

I can't wait to see this up on site.

So, Dave, do you want to finish the VC and put the cross on?

-Go on, I'll have a go.

-OK.

I'm very nervous. I don't want to make a mistake, get this one wrong.

-Peel this back?

-Yeah.

Remembering 100 years of history, David unpeels the past.

The pressure is on.

Perfect.

Yeah!

The sign is now ready to be put on site.

Absolutely brilliant.

Careful with that nameplate, lads.

Don't drop it.

A lot of work went into that nameplate.

I don't want it damaged.

Spot-on.

On nearby roads,

some of the nameplates commemorating other miners and the colliery that

this estate is built on are already up.

As the finishing touches are made, residents gather to learn more.

Hiya, I'm glad you've come out.

Hi.

-Do you know the story of why the council has named this street Wilkinson Park Drive?

-No, we don't.

You don't? Alfred was a local lad.

He went to fight for Queen and country in the First World War,

awarded the Victoria Cross, survived the war,

came back to his local town, carried on working down Bickershaw colliery,

and sadly died in a colliery disaster.

So that's why we named the street after Alfred Wilkinson.

I think it's very fitting, really.

This area was a strong mining community in the past, so it's good, yeah.

Yeah, well done, Wigan Council, for doing it.

-So we are getting it right?

-You are certainly getting it right.

-Thank you very much.

Made my day. Thank you.

A lot of people don't know about Alfred Wilkinson.

So to see that, we're very proud of it and I'm sure that

Alfred's family will be proud of it and the fact that he has

got some commemoration in the area.

It makes you more aware of your history.

Remember what these people have done.

I think it's a nice gesture.

The locals seemed to take an interest in the sign straightaway,

asking questions. There's nothing more rewarding than that.

By giving these streets their names,

David's made sure residents can receive their post,

their pizzas, and the emergency services can reach them.

But he's also etched the estate's past into its present.

They shouldn't be forgotten and there's lots of young people, OK,

we're at the other end of the scale,

but there's lots of young people on this site, and it's nice for them

to have a little bit of history, as well.

So, well thought out.

Environmental enforcement officer Alex Kay

is investigating an incident of fly-tipping.

The waste left near a railway bridge contained asbestos,

and Alex is trying to find out who dumped it.

Asbestos kills people, at the end of the day.

So people dumping asbestos in the open air,

where the wind can pick it up and blow it into housing estates or

you know, across playgrounds, roads, schools, children, adults,

people are breathing that in and it can cause no end of long-term damage.

The asbestos was removed quickly.

But four weeks after the council was first called about the dumped waste,

the rest of the rubbish remains in place.

Local residents want it gone.

I'm not happy about it. There's going to be all sorts of rats and stuff running around.

The street is only there, you know what I mean? Someone needs to clean it up.

It's really bad because...

Near enough everyone who walks past, everyone who lives round here,

they're complaining about it, saying,

"When is it going to be shifted?"

We're like, "Well, we don't know.

"All we can do is just keep complaining to the council."

Alex is under pressure to get the waste removed and find out who left it there.

He has invited Mr Shahzad Chishti to council HQ.

Mr Chishti is converting an old pub into flats near the railway bridge where the rubbish was dumped.

He was also turned away from the recycling centre with a vanload of waste

that included asbestos.

During the interview,

Mr Chishti admits that he took some rubbish to the recycling centre

and that it is him on the footage, but he denies fly-tipping anywhere.

I hired a van, and I loaded the van up, spent my whole weekend taking it to a recycling centre.

I had to bring it back because the recycling centre wouldn't take it.

Mr Chishti also believes that there is further evidence supporting his case.

They presented their evidence,

which was pictures of waste that they believe is my rubbish.

There is discrepancies if that is my rubbish because the colours of the

bags in their picture are slightly different to the one in mine.

Mr Chishti's denials mean Alex is no closer to finding the culprit.

We've showed all the evidence and asked the questions

that we needed to ask and gave him his opportunity to put his point of view across, which he has done.

I don't fly-tip. I've got...

I've been paying for skips.

A couple of thousand pounds for skips to dispose of my rubbish safely.

I'm not stupid enough to fly-tip.

Alex's investigation hits a dead end.

The council is no closer to finding out who dumped the waste,

and so its search for the fly-tipper continues.

But there is some good news.

Alex has established that a railway company owns the land

that the rubbish is on and has persuaded them to move it.

They say it's going to take them three trips in the van to get rid of the waste,

but hopefully at the end of the day it will all be gone.

After five hours, the rubbish is finally removed,

costing the railway company over £1,000.

Now, like his fellow Wiganers,

Alex can also enjoy a rubbish-free journey to work.

I'm delighted that it's finally been moved because I have to drive past it twice a day.

When it comes to council tax, the public expects value for money,

and opinions on whether they are getting it vary nationwide.

Council tax keeps going up,

but they're not providing you with extra services to counteract that.

They're not showing you what the money is being spent on.

They do a vital job.

And these days, it is just the vital jobs that I see them do.

I'm not really sure. I'm not actually sure

what they're providing, to be honest with you.

They're there to try and provide the services that

we need as a community.

We need to be able to support that by identifying what those needs are.

I drove through a pothole the other day

that had been there for three weeks. It cost me £200 to fix my car.

That could have been fixed a bit quicker!

In Wigan, it's four o'clock on Sunday morning.

And while most Wiganers are sound asleep,

council town centre manager Mike Matthews

is beginning one of the busiest days in the borough's calendar - Wigan's annual 10K run.

There is about six large-scale events we do that will attract between

10,000 and 20,000 people through the year.

Yes, the pressure is on us, the eyes are on us,

so we need to make sure we're actually getting everything 100% right.

If it goes wrong, the whole event could be a complete disaster.

It's going to be like this now for about three hours, very hands-on.

And once the stage is built and we've done the sound test,

the day gets a little bit easier.

In less than six hours, an expected 3,000 runners,

cheered on by 15,000 spectators,

will be descending on the town centre.

In the 30-odd years I've been doing this type of event management,

I've never had a problem, but there's always a first time.

But an early start doesn't mean it'll be Easy Street while setting up.

This morning, it's going to be the late-night rebels that are just coming

out of the nightclubs between four and six o'clock,

so we'll just have to watch our backs.

While we're trying to do our thing,

you've got cars whizzing by and people who have had a few to drink,

which makes it a little bit more exciting.

Right on cue, Wigan's revellers are rolling out.

Mate!

It's the sort of thing I've warned the lads about before,

about watching the odd vehicle come through. Very dangerous.

It's that way.

But it's not the partygoers that present Mike with his first problem.

Try and get this to work.

Mike and his team need to inflate a giant stage,

and without power from the generator,

there is no puff to blow it up.

There's a warning light flashing there.

Luckily for Mike, Wigan has its very own Power Ranger.

The show will go on.

With 60 square metres of stage to put up,

1,100 metres of barriers to put in place, and over 1,000 cones to put out,

for Mike and his team, every second counts.

It's lovely now. The sun is up, the stage is up, everything is working.

So we can have five minutes.

-It's gone really well.

-Yeah.

In the UK, nearly seven million Britons ran for charity in 2014,

raising around £2 billion.

Wigan is now race-ready, but Mike's job is far from over.

Throughout the day, he will oversee the entertainment,

monitor the markets and manage the safety of visitors to the town centre.

It's a little bit later than we thought.

The police I'm expecting any time now,

so I'll just do a quick briefing session with those.

I'll gather the stewards together and we'll just go over some of the security issues.

Quick breakfast, and then the show starts in half an hour at nine o'clock.

The 10K is in its third year.

Amongst the runners warming up today is a team from the council.

In their ranks is environmental enforcement officer Alex Kay.

There's 20 of us running today in aid of the Mace charity.

This is the second time I've done this,

but I was a bit more prepared last time.

It's 10K, 6.2 miles, so it should be doable.

Right, good to go.

Ready to race, Alex is leaving the frustrations of fly-tipping behind.

The event isn't just about raising money for charity.

Entertainment on Mike's stage, and other stalls and attractions,

are generating cash for local businesses,

and the community has come together.

MUSIC: (We Could Be) Heroes by Alesso

As Alex jogs on, there is a report of a missing person.

Mike needs to find him.

Can you give Pete a live feed on stage?

We've got a missing person, he's just going to do a shout-out.

Ladies and gentlemen, can you please be on the lookout,

we're looking for a young gentleman who's wearing a Marvel jacket with a

Spider-Man T-shirt and I'm told he has blue bottoms and a navy striped top.

Mike's missing person is somewhere amongst the thousands of visitors

crowded into the town centre.

Gentleman, 29-year-old.

But he's being helped by the council's CCTV control room.

That was Central Watch, who look after all our cameras in the town centre.

They've just contacted us to say they've heard the report of the missing person. They'll find him.

You can plan as much as you want and you can do all your risk assessments, event management plans,

but there's always the unknown that you've got to cater for,

and that's where experience comes into it, really.

We can plan to the nth detail,

but it's about being there on the day and then dealing with something,

the unknown sometimes, that might happen.

While Mike's search continues,

runners are beginning to cross the line.

Alex has the end in his sights and his focus is on finishing the race in a respectable time.

With the sun beating down,

the runners are pushing themselves to the limit.

About 55 minutes, I think, which is all right considering

the lack of training. Yeah, it was good.

A bit tired now, though.

Made up. I'll go and get a drink.

Mike's also had a result.

As I was walking back up into the town centre,

met the police officers with the mother and I'm pleased to say the young gentleman, as well.

So she was overwhelmed, hugging the police officer.

They had obviously been reunited, so happy ending, I'm pleased to say.

Community kept safe and thousands raised for charity,

the runners and spectators head home.

But Mike and his team still have a long way to go.

The event's now just finished in the town centre.

What we've now got to do is take all the lighting rigs, the PA,

take our stage down, load four vans up.

Once that's been done, we'll then start taking all the waste away and will

probably get done round about eight o'clock this evening.

It's been a long but successful shift for Mike and his crew.

While Alex and the council 10K team can be proud of the £900 they raised for their chosen charity.

It's been another busy shift for Wigan's council officers.

A pavement is finally free of fly-tipped waste.

I'm delighted that it's finally been moved because I have to drive past it twice a day.

Local heroes will be remembered by a new generation of residents.

That's why we've named the street after Alfred Wilkinson.

And a fun run ran without a hitch.

I'm made up.

I'll go and get a drink.

The reason why we like working the long shifts, and the team as well,

is because they see people's faces.

It's the impact that we make.

You do get a big high out of that, to be honest with you.