Welcome to a new regular column for Have Your Say - Green SCENE! It is being put together by Matt Favier, the environmental worker for the Community Network for Miles Platting, Ancoats and Collyhurst, Matt hopes that it will be a two way process for putting out and receiving information useful for everyone.

The project Matt is running is called SCENE, which stands for Sustainable Communities - Environmental Neighbourhoods, and its aim is to help create a stronger, safer, cleaner and greener (more sustainable) community in the area covered by the Community Network. To do this, the project needs as much input and involvement from local people as possible.

Matt hopes that this column can help to do this! What ideas do you have for improving your area? What tips could you share with people for living a greener lifestyle? What do you think is the biggest challenge in making the area more sustainable? What are the best ways you know for saving money, energy or resources, and living in an easier, less wasteful way?

Please write to Matt Favier at the Have Your Say address, or email him at: mpaccn@btconnect.com with your ideas - the best ideas or suggestions sent in before each issue of the magazine will win an environmentally friendly prize worth £20, and give the sender a chance to tell all the Have Your Say readers their ideas! So get thinking and get writing!

Here are some examples of easy ways we can use less, do less, spend less and have more - quality of life, time and money that is!

* Turn your heating thermostat down by just 1oc could save up to 10% on your heating bill. Close curtains and doors to keep your house warmer for nothing!

* Use a bike for short journeys - it produces no pollution or global warming gases, keeps you fitter, and saves money compared with the car or using the bus! There is a proven link now between car exhausts and children getting asthma.

* Re-use unwanted junk mail envelopes for sending everyday mail - bill payments etc. Save paper, money, trees and reduce energy use.

* Give old or unwanted clothes to a charity shop or fabric bank - help someone else benefit from your stuff, and reduce the amount of rubbish you send to landfill - the holes in the ground where we send most of our rubbish, and that we are rapidly running out of!

I’m sure there are loads of good ideas out there, and Green SCENE wants to know about them!

In the next issue, Green SCENE will look at energy and why we should try and save some! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas, until next time, Matt.

Matt Launched his project with a Big Green Fun Day in March, it was a lovely day with entertainment for the children, advice on plants, a FREE barbeque, face painting etc.