River ‘trashed’ by litter louts

The city’s precious River Stour is being “trashed” on an alarming scale, say nature lovers. It follows another clean-up in which 15 bin bags full of rubbish and other bulky items were trawled from just 100 metres of the waterway.

The haul included 138 glass bottles, 89 drinks cans, 63 food wrappers, 35 pieces of metal, including shopping trolleys, 28 items of clothing, a pram, a car dashboard and plastic toys. The clean-up on Monday was organised on a stretch of the Stour behind Sainsbury’s by river wardens from the Our Stour group of the Kentish Stour Countryside Project.

One of the volunteers Sian Pettman said: “The volume of litter and fly-tipping in such a short stretch of river is truly depressing and shocking. “We have tackled this area in the past so it is clear more rubbish is being fly-tipped regularly. The fact is that our beautiful Stour, which is a rare chalk stream, is being trashed and it’s tragic.”

Mrs Pettman believes a hard-hitting campaign with posters and new signage along the river banks is now necessary in a bid to raise awareness and deter fly-tipping.

KSCP Stour officer Lauren Baker added: “The rubbish we are getting out is astonishing, not only in its quantity but also its variety.

“That’s despite numerous waste bins along the river.” Lauren believes the absence of plastic bottles does not mean they are not being thrown in the river in the area, but are floating away downstream.

City councillor Ashley Clark is drafting public space protection orders for consideration which would make it an offence to be drinking from glass bottles beside the Stour in Canterbury. He said: “They are a major menace to the river and I agree that signage also needs to go up to raise awareness of the damage being done.”

Our Stour volunteers cleaned out the rubbish

Some of the items pulled from the river