Mersey Basin Campaign Blog

Doing a clean up? Watch out for daleks!

Spotted an interesting snippet in the Metro newspaper this morning - it seems a volunteer was taking part in a clean up at his local pond down in Hampshire, when he unearthed the head of a dalek from amongst the usual litter. According to the Metro, Marc Oakland saw something round and dark coming to the surface of the pond, which turned out to be the head of one of Doctor Who's archenemies, the daleks. It seems they'd filmed in the area, and this particular exterminator had been left behind. So next time you're out in your waders, just think, a piece of TV history could be just under the next shopping trolley.

The Mersey Basin Campaign offers lots of opportunities to get involved in clean-ups on the Northwest's waters. We can't promise space-rubbish, but if you'd like to take part, contact your nearest Action Partnership, or email our Community Support Coordinator, Bev Mitchell

CLICK HERE TO SEE A PIC OF MARC AND HIS DALEK

RIBBLE FORUM 08: Q&A

 

This year's Ribble Forum is taking place on Thursday 20th November at the Harris Conference Centre, Garstang Road, Preston. The event will look at a range of projects and developments throughout the Ribble catchment, including:

• The breach of the sea defences at Hesketh Outmarsh 
• The River Douglas Crossing design competition
• United Utilities improvements to river water quality

Throughout the morning there will be opportunities to ask questions of the speakers, and that's where you come in. You can submit your question in advance by leaving a comment below (click on 'Comments'), and we'll provide you with a copy on the day. Of course, if the forum raises a new question for you, you're welcome to ask a fresh question then as well......

Don't forget to leave your name and organisation, so that we know who's asking what!

If you haven't done so already, you can book to attend the forum by CLICKING HERE.

River Darwen clean up – World Environment Day 2008

Many thanks to the 15 volunteers from the BTCV Green Gym® and Environment Agency who met up with me and worked together to clean up the River Darwen in Witton Country Park, Blackburn.  The clean was held on 5^th June as part of World Environment Day activities to draw attention to the litter problem in the River Darwen and encourage action for improvement.  Thanks also to Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for providing a skip, into which we put a couple of bicycles, many road safety barriers stamped ‘Enterprise’ and two shopping trolleys marked ASDA and Sainsbury’s as well as lots of plastic bags, drinks bottles, pipework and scrap metal.  Thanks to Simon Boocock form the Environment Agency for the photos to illustrating the improvement the clean up has made:

Before:

After:

It wasn't all hard graft though - I found out how to do the 'BTCV wave' during the warm up and warm down exercises (as it was a Green Gym® activity) and how they put the 'T' in BTCV:

A good day was had by all and we were all pleased to see the litter trap boom being re-connected whilst we were working - hopefully the river will now continue to look as good as it does today !

For the full news story click here

Download pressrelease_world_environment_day_clean_up.doc

Hoghton Bottoms 14th annual clean up

30 volunteers worked hard over the weekend of 15th-16th March 2008 to remove debris and 100 bags of litter from the River Darwen and its banks at Hoghton Bottoms.

Led by local resident Carol Price, the weekend river clean tackled a kilometre stretch of the River Darwen.  Access was slightly difficult because footpath 13 is currently closed due to a landslide following high flows in January and February.  Volunteers had special permission to use a farm track to reach footpath 14 in the clean up.

Before the clean up this is how the river looked. 

I intend to take the 'after' shot & post here on the BLOG soon.

Litter Trap BLOG

I am updating the litter trap project BLOG regularly and the webpage detailing the litter trap trappings at the moment but will make posts about other projects whenever there is something to report.

Get down to the green gym

It's that time of year again when you can no longer hide inside your winter woollies, and thoughts begin to turn to getting in shape. But if the thought of pounding the streets in your running gear, hitting the gym or facing the crowds at your local pool leaves you cold, why not try out one of BTCV's Green Gyms? They offer the chance to get fit by taking part in conservation activities, with the added bonus that you'll meet like-minded people and get out in the fresh air at the same time.

The latest Green Gym opportunity in our area takes place on Thursday mornings at Witton Country Park. Click here to visit BTCV's website and find out more.

You'll be showing off that new swimwear in no time!

Fly-tipping problem highlighted by the Litter Trap

On Sunday 13th May 2007 members of the public enjoyed junk music and puppet-making with the PickleHerring Theatre Company to launch the River Darwen Litter Trap Project in the community. 

Although we were horrified to see the trap is blighted by fly-tipped waste (I counted 43 tyres - see photos below!) at least the waste will be easier to remove from the trap than they would have been if they had been washed down through the catchment of the River Darwen into the River Ribble and the Ribble Estuary.  This highlights the importance of the litter trap and, in a way, is very encouraging.
   
Information about the fly-tipping has been passed on to the Environment Agency and we await the results of their investigation, hoping this will help in the project's most important aim - to prevent litter and debris from getting into the River Darwen in the first place.  If you have any information to help the Environment Agency please contact the Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60 quoting incident report number 494131.

WATCH THE LITTER TRAP IN ACTION HERE

 

Wild weather in Lancashire

There was some wild weather the other week, as I'm sure everyone noticed and lots of  brave souls have ventured out to take photos of their local area.

Click here to see the photos from Lancashire on the BBC website.