MOST of us fail to think about the cost of individual services provided by Bolton Council until they’re under direct threat.

As only one example, the idea of people taking to the streets in any matter related to their local library would, I feel certain, have seemed unlikely before several of our libraries were actually earmarked for closure.

One place that had no choice but to think about which services they needed and which they didn’t was the Preston street at the centre of the BBC1 programme last week, The Street That Cut Everything. Whatever your views about the timely political significance of focusing on one community that had to decide between rubbish collections and housing benefit, there is no doubt that the basic idea proved highly divisive.

The programme came as local councils around the country are faced with the impossible juggling act of saving millions on their budgets. But the real loss demonstrated in Preston seemed to be to the community itself as individual rows broke out.

It was interesting to contrast that with the situation in Malton Avenue, Deane in Bolton.

Here, neighbours are celebrating a lottery grant of £48,000 to turn spare land blighted by flytipping into a community garden and play area.

A year ago, neighbours banded together — including involving their children — to help clean up the land, and work will begin shortly on the next stage of this practical transformation. There is a garden steering committee run by residents and it’s obvious that the project has really melded together this community.

In fact, local councillor Andy Morgan cites it as “a brilliant example of a community coming together and bidding for money the council doesn’t have access to” and he praised the residents’ creativity.

It’s obvious that such a project, with its necessary hard work and commitment, could have easily highlighted the divides between neighbours. Instead, it had the opposite effect.

Unlike the TV programme which showed some stunning examples of selfishness and lack of a appreciation of what the locality needed, what has happened in Deane reveals the basic goodness of people and how actually working on something that benefits everyone is a satisfying way to build real communities today.