Pants, a mattress, a tent and e-scooter are just some of items pulled from the Avon

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To kick off national Volunteer Week (1-7 June) a big river clean-up took place on the banks of the Avon where teams of volunteers came together ahead of Stratford’s Big Green Week.

Stratford Kayak Club, Rubbish Friends Community Group, Severn Rivers Trust and Severn Trent joined forces to help pick up litter, both on the banks and in the water itself - to avoid it polluting the Avon.

A true collaborative effort, the event saw local residents out in force with around 47 volunteers turning up on the day all with a passion on keeping Warwickshire’s waterways clean.

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The big river clean up involved litter pickers travelling by boat or on foot helping to remove any rubbish that’s wound up either in or next to the river.

Volunteer in actionVolunteer in action
Volunteer in action

Food packets and wrappers, plastic and glass bottles, several pairs pants and a mattresswere all removed as part of the efforts from the volunteers.

Claudine Pearson of Rubbish Friends, a litter prevention charity for Stratford-upon-Avon who organised the event said: Litter is an entirely preventable form of pollution. It costs the taxpayer and it costs our environment, as it degrades into our land and finds its way into our water. We ask visitors to take their waste and leftovers home and recycle right for the benefit of all!”

Kat Reay, Severn Trent Community Stakeholder Manager at Severn Trent said: “Keeping rivers healthy and clean is always important to us, so it was brilliant to be involved in such an amazing day where we saw different groups and volunteers come together to help keep the Avon clean and free from litter.

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“We’re no strangers to Stratford, we’re lucky enough to already be working with the local community as part of our work on improving the local rivers where lots of great stuff is happening on the Avon directly.

Bags of rubbish from the clean upBags of rubbish from the clean up
Bags of rubbish from the clean up

“It was great to see the amazing turn out of volunteers who are all passionate about keeping rivers clean.”

Severn Trent is continuing to support with Stratford’s Big Green Week – with local River Ranger Luke holding a ‘CSO Safari’ next week as part of its support with the local citizen science work.

The company also regularly meets local community groups as it’s carrying out big investments in Warwickshire that will benefit the Avon, such as it’s bathing rivers programme. A £78m investment where it’s set to move a stretch of the River Leam to bathing quality, which will have huge benefits to the River Avon.

There’s plenty of exciting activity coming up for Big Green Week next week – with more details found here: Stratford-upon-Avon Great Big Green Week - Great Big Green Week

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