Turning the tide on river of litter ... one shopping trolley at a time
THE pro and anti-Brexit brigades were not the only civilian armies on the warpath this weekend. From West Country beaches to the Yorkshire Dales and Glasgow’s Plantation Park, hundreds of thousands of people of every age (and every political allegiance) were united in their opposition to one thing: litter.
As a result, the whole country is feeling a little cleaner and tidier this morning.
Great swathes of land and sea have been spared umpteen tons of toxic, non-degradable rubbish as a result. Ask anyone who has taken part in the Great British Spring Clean – organised by Keep Britain Tidy and backed by the Daily Mail – and they will tell you this was anything but a chore.
Everyone I met had enjoyed themselves enormously.
In some cases, it also presented some interesting challenges too, as I discovered when I joined a particularly intrepid band of young volunteers in Godalming, Surrey.
Clearing up rubbish is relatively straightforward when you have a bin bag in one hand and a litter-picker in the other. But what if you need to hold a paddle at the same time?
It didn’t bother the members of the Go Godalming Youth Canoe Club as they gathered on the banks of the River Wey in Surrey. Founded by former police officer, Peter Harris, 16 years ago, the club has introduced hundreds of youngsters to the joys of the river.
OVER the years, some of its members have not only paddled the 20 miles from Godalming to Weybridge, where the Wey joins the Thames, but have then paddled on all the way to London.
If you head in the opposite direction, however, Godalming is the end of the line for river traffic on the Wey. Town Bridge is the point beyond which no motorised vessel is allowed to proceed.
Yet there is clearly plenty of rubbish upstream and it is also easily accessible by kayak and canoe. So there is no stopping the Go Godalming gang.
Having passed beneath Town Bridge, we make our way upstream to find a remarkable haul of detritus. I am reminded of that old adage about being stuck up a certain creek – except, in this case, I do have a paddle. There are the usual cans and bottles galore plus a lot of crisp packets, of course.
But canoeing instructor Jonathan Allford, 20, finds plenty more besides. He pulls up a fish trap, probably laid by poachers trying to catch some of those North American crayfish which now infest British riverbeds. Even more impressive, is his next find, a Sainsbury’s shopping trolley which he manages to lift in to the central section of his canoe.
His helpers, Amy Mason, seven, and Stanley Cooker, six, are pleased as punch as dog walkers and cyclists along the riverbank admire their curious cargo.
Further downstream, three teenagers have found a mountain of flytipping in the bushes separating the river and the car park at Sainsbury’s. Sam Spraggs, 15, has found a bundle of DvDs, a bath mat and a sleeping bag. Seb Ellery, 14, has filled binliners with books (including a copy of the Bible) and old clothes.
James Rodger, 13, has hauled what looks like a wheel for a trailer or caravan out of the weeds.
‘I’m not sure why that’s in there. It’s still got some good left tread on it!’ jokes Peter Harris, ever the ex- copper. Now 62, he has been closely involved with the River Wey for a long time and says that the flytipping started to get noticeably worse about ten years ago when the local council tips started charging for certain waste.
Having originally started the canoeing club ‘because some local kids were getting a bad press for being in trouble’, he has seen it grow into a very popular community asset.
Five instructors and as many as 50 youngsters might turn up on a summer’s evening for training and a lot of splashing around followed by tea and hot chocolate. It is all run
out of a nice old barn which is loaned to the club by the owners of this stretch of the river, the National Trust.
The canoeists are more than happy to repay the favour by keeping the banks litter-free.
Peter’s own children, Tamzin, 18, and Alfie, 15, are in the thick of the clean-up which eventually fills dozens of binliners with every sort of litter, including a pair of suede shoes.
The youngsters explain that it is not just a matter of keeping their river clean but also one of safety, too. ‘If you capsize and you hit a shopping trolley or some broken glass, then that’s going to spoil things,’ says James Rodger. It is a slick operation. Local policeman Jim Lavery is manning the urns and the tea table on the bank when we return.
A couple of parents are on hand to spray everyone’s hands with antiseptic spray before they dive for plates of biscuits.
Everyone feels that it has been a job well done and Jonathan Allford heads off for Sainsbury’s – still in his waterproof drysuit – to hand back their missing trolley. I move from Surrey to neighbouring Berkshire to catch another Great British Spring Clean.
Bracknell Forest Council and Bracknell Town Council have joined forces for a series of co-ordinated clear-ups which all come together at the end in South Hill Park. More than a hundred local residents have rounded up enough rubbish to fill three tipper trucks and have already split them into what is recyclable and what is not.
Dorothy Hayes MBE, the councillor in charge of waste and recycling for the borough, says that she has noticed a marked improvement in people’s habits.
‘There has definitely been a drop in plastic,’ she says, adding that the council has recently taken delivery of a new specialist recycling truck and named it after a locally-born superstar.
‘We call it “Kate Binslet”,’ she says, helping her two-year- old granddaughter master the lobster claw of a litter-picker. ‘It’s already saved thousands of tons.’
Surveying Bracknell’s handiwork, Councillor Marc Brunel-Walker wants to pay tribute to the Daily Mail. ‘We really have seen a big drop in the number of plastic bags this year and that is down to the Mail’s campaign to stop them,’ he says.
Deputy council leader Dale Birch agrees: ‘This is the time of year when we cut the grass verges for the first time and we are finding that a lot less stuff has been thrown in there. It’s all about unconscious recall and changing habits and that’s what the Mail has been doing.’
One recurring aspect of all this weekend’s efforts right across the country has been the number of young people rolling up their sleeves.
AT one spring clean-up after another, we have seen large numbers of schoolchildren and students getting stuck in because they are enjoying it, not because they are being prodded by a parent. Here in Bracknell, I meet the 1st Priestwood Guides happily doing their bit.
Just up the road, a litter blitz by the Egham Residents’ Association is soon beefed up by the arrival of the 1st Egham Scouts who help to fill 20 binliners in just a couple of hours.
And so it continues. The Great British Spring Clean has only just begun. Look on the website and you will see that there are events and gatherings right across Britain over the next four weeks. Volunteers are warmly welcomed everywhere. Don’t wait to be asked.