Plea for help to get river cleaned up

A primary school teacher has embarked on a mission to clean up a north river in its entirety – over just one weekend.

Tom Rawson is seeking volunteers for his Single Spey River Clean, which aims to freshen up its full 106-mile length over

October 3- 4. Working together, he hopes teams can pull thousands of pieces of rubbish from the prominent waterway.

Mr Rawson will be running riverbank cleans at Kingussie, Aviemore, Aberlour and Grantown over the weekend and has found volunteer leaders to work at locations stretching between Newtonmore and Spey Bay.

He said: “I would, however, like to involve more groups in more towns and villages along the river.”

The teacher, who lives and works in the Borders, is expanding his Green Tweed initiative after achieving good results last year.

“This effort follows the successful formula of the Great Borders River Clean developed here in the Tweed catchment,” he said. “The last edition saw 453 volunteers clear two tonnes of rubbish from 30 communities on the Tweed and its major tributaries.

“Mo r e than 1,000 volunteers have taken part in GBRC river cleans in the last two years.”

Anyone interested can contact Mr Rawson by emailing: trawson@ stmarysmelrose.org.uk