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Page 14 April 2026 AD SALES 01204 478812 A PIONEERING pro- ject to offer emer- gency accommodation for some of Bolton’s most vulnerable homeless people has been judged a success. Nine self-contained ‘Sleeper Pods’ were made available in the town in a trial running from November until the end of March. In a statement, Bol- ton Council said: “It has delivered its prime objec- tive of helping safeguard the lives and wellbeing of homeless people in Bolton over the winter, many of whom have been sleeping rough on the streets for years. “While the pods are compact and functional, they have proved to provide a safe, secure and warm place for the rough sleepers during the winter. “The pods show res- idents there are safe alternatives to rough sleeping, and living inde- pendently in a secure, private, self-contained place is an attaina- ble goal. “Also, the scheme has made it far easier for support agencies to help the residents and produce personalised ‘move-on plans’ which significantly reduces the risks of them returning to live on the streets. “A final assessment of the scheme will take place by summer, and all the findings will inform any plans and decisions going forward.” The council’s rough sleeping team has worked hard to ensure no one has to return to living on the streets, and people have either progressed into more permanent accommoda- tion or are in the process of transferring to more specialist settings that can better support their specific needs, any oth- ers not allocated suita- ble accommodation are being supported as a top priority. Warehouse search ends in £1.7m illegal vapes haul Rogue roofer’s work ‘entirely worthless’ Work ban: John Joseph Collins (Photo credit: LCC) A ROGUE land- scaper and roofer who scammed four householders in Chorley and Greater Manchester out of thousands of pounds has been given a sus- pended 22 -month jail sentence. John Joseph Collins of Heather Street in Manchester was inves- tigated by Lancashire County Council’s Trad- ing Standards team who discovered that he had failed to carry out work or had done incomplete, substandard or misde- scribed jobs. He traded under the false names of Chris Taylor, Ryan Taylor and John Wilkinson as well as the business names of Ideal Landscapers, New Age Roofing Specialists and Greenacre Land- scape Services. Collins, 29, was given the sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Preston Crown Court on March 24 after pleading guilty in December to four charges of fraudulent trading under the Fraud Act 2006. He was also given a three-year Criminal Behaviour Order prohib- iting him from offering to do work or carry out any work at residents’ homes until after March 23, 2029. The court heard how Collins had responded to requests on online platforms where house- holders were looking for traders to carry out land- scaping and roofing jobs. The prosecution fol- lowed an investigation into works carried out at four addresses, one in Chorley and three in Greater Manchester, between August 2024 and April 2025. The Chorley victim paid Collins to carry out roofing work after identifying a leak, but the repair, which took less than four hours, was charged at £1,400. A consulting surveyor instructed by Trading Standards concluded in his report that every ele- ment of the roofing work was either not attempted or incompetently per- formed and that the work was entirely worthless. All of his victims were left financially worse off than before Collins began as they faced fur- ther bills to get the work completed or needed to have faulty work redone. Three of the victims all paid for landscaping materials just before or after initial works of clearing and remov- ing had begun. In some cases, a small amount of materials were delivered. Once initial and sometimes further payments were obtained, Collins did not return. In total, funds received by Collins for the mini- mal work and unfinished landscaping jobs came to £10,600. Speaking after the case Paul Noone, the council’s Head of Trading Standards, said: “John Joseph Collins failed to carry out work or carried out poor-quality work, whilst gaining substan- tial amounts of money paid upfront. Thanks to the efforts of our officers, he’s now banned from carrying on with his fraudulent work. “This prosecution and the Criminal Behaviour Order send a clear sig- nal that we won’t tol- erate rogue traders in Lancashire, and we’ll do everything we can to bring them to justice.” MORE than 200,000 illegal sin- gle use vapes were seized in Bolton in major trading stand- ards operation, They were taken from a warehouse in the Halliwell area after officers discovered 30 pallets of the banned products during a planned inspection of commercial premises. The single-use vapes, which have been prohibited from sale in the UK since June 2025, have an estimated street value of £1.7million. The items were seized under Trad- ing Standards’ statutory powers which allow officers to remove unsafe, non-compliant, or otherwise prohibited goods from supply. All the vapes will now be disposed of using an authorised and licensed waste contractor. The process ensures the items can- not re-enter the supply chain and that disposal is carried out in line with environmental and hazardous waste regulations. A spokesperson for Bolton Coun- cil said: “This is a significant sei- zure that prevents a large quantity of banned products from reaching local communities. “The team continues to take robust action to protect consumers and ensure that illegal or unsafe goods are removed from circulation.” Bolton Council’s Trading Standards service conducts proactive inspections throughout the year to ensure busi- nesses comply with consumer protec- tion and product safety legislation. Sleeper Pod scheme makes a difference VA NDA L S who destroyed 360 newly planted saplings close to Bolton’s Hall I’th’ Wood Museum have been condemned for carrying out the ‘mindless’ attack. The young trees were ripped from out of the ground and scat- tered across a third of a hectare. Planted by volunteers in February, the trees were part of a wider envi- ronmental project. Bolton Council condemned the “shameful” act, which police are investigating. More than 10,000 new trees are currently being planted at parks, woods and green spaces across the borough under plans coordinated by Bolton Council and the City of Trees organisation. The work has been made possible by Nature for Climate funding from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Richard Silvester, Bolton Council’s execu- tive member for climate change and environment, said: “This kind of mind- less vandalism is utterly shameful and whoever has done it is a dis- grace to themselves and their community. “Bolton’s green spaces are valued by young and old, and one of the things councillors are most often asked is to plant more trees. “It’s awful to see trees that could have been enjoyed by gener- ations to come ripped from the ground and I’m determined to find the culprits.” ‘Mindless’ act of tree vandalism condemned Shameful: The attack on the newly planted trees (Photo credit: Bolton Council)