St George’s Square fountain cleaned by Charlie Cartwright in four hours

Oct 25 2010 by Nick Moreton, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A MAN who vowed to clean up St George’s Square in half a day has kept his word.

Stone restoration expert Charlie Cartwright has stepped in to sort out the troublesome St George’s square fountain.

The Kirkheaton man offered to clean the £230,000 cascade water feature for free, in return for a £300 donation to Kirkwood Hospice.

He stepped forward after Kirklees Council admitted it could not remove some tough stains from the black granite surface.

The cascade – which was a centrepiece of the £4m revamp of the square – has been out of action since one of its pumps broke down in July.

The council had planned to clean the white stains while the pump repairs were taking place, but the stubborn marks refused to budge despite workers spraying them with high pressure water jets.

Mr Cartwright emailed Kirklees on July 23 offering his services, but the council took until last week to respond.

But yesterday afternoon Mr Cartwright managed to blitz through the job in just four hours, using special stone cleaning equipment.

The 49-year-old, who runs his own business CC Surface Restorers, said: “ It’s company policy that we don’t make mountains out of fountains.

“It’s something I said I’d do and I’ve done it.

“Overall the stain came off relatively easily but we’ll just have to suck it and see.