A Big Summer Clean Up
Not so much a Spring Clean but a big Summer Clean up at an important local beauty spot!
Scores of enthusiastic volunteers descended on Witton Lakes to have a full day cleaning up –on land and on water- with lots of wildflower planting taking place and removing invasive species.
37 volunteers from Severn Trent Water got their hands dirty and collected bag-fulls of rubbish and other interesting items. The volunteers were Community Champions, who work for Severn Trent Water and are doing voluntary work with different projects across the region.
They were joined by Keep Britain Tidy ‘Waterside Care’ who helped clear the whole area and also planted Yellow Rattle Wildflowers; helping to improve the area for wildlife but also bring even more colour to the park – enhancing the array of existing wildflowers on show. There really was no area of the beauty spot left un-cleaned.
Not even the bottom of the lakes were left untouched! Keen canoeist, Dave Billingham, spent the day on the water, cleaning all sorts of weird and not so wonderful items from the lake beds – ranging from old traffic cones, rubber pipes, a washing basket and traffic bollards.
Dave’s fantastic voluntary project ‘Birmingham Lakes; Litter Picks and Trips’ is seeming him travel across the city, to clean up lakes and waterways, removing all manner of rubbish using his trusty canoe.
Dave says “I wanted to bring my passion for waterways and canoeing together and help our local environment. I’m trying to get round as many lakes as possible in Birmingham, to get as much rubbish out and make a big difference to the wildlife. Quite often, people will come and feed the wildlife, but they leave their plastic bags behind. I just want to try and make a difference for everyone. And I’m getting around a lot of lakes in the city!”
As a reward for their hard work, the volunteers partied the evening away on-site in a giant marquee. They were all very careful not to drop any litter too!
Linda Hines MBE, chair of Friends of Witton Lakes, comments: “It’s been fantastic spending the day with all the volunteers. They have all worked their socks off, picking up litter, removing invasive plants, tidying up the wildflower meadows and planting over 1000 new Yellow Rattle plugs. The transformation of Witton Lakes over the past 10 years has been tremendous – and this work by all the volunteers is helping us to continue this, so that everyone can appreciate the beautiful lakes and lovely park we have, right here on our doorstep.”
