Volunteers give the canal a spring clean

The Chesterfield Canal got a spring clean at Retford as a group of volunteers from Chesterfield Canal Trust, the Retford and Worksop Boat Club, the Inland Waterways Association and the Canal & River Trust went on a litter pick with a difference.

By The Newsroom

Published 7th Apr 2014, 09:53 BST

Volunteers cleaned up the Chesterfield Canal at Retford

While some went along the shore, others fished items out of the water from aboard the Trust’s boat Seth Ellis.

The main attack on the litter was on the water and after five hours of hooking and scooping, 47 black bags were filled with plastic bottles and metal cans, all of which had been floating on the margins of the waterway.

A small towpath party meanwhile combed the verges for more litter and collected a further nine bags full.

The Canal & River Trust team had provided a disposal facility at Whitsunday Pie lock and a spokesman said it was ‘most gratifying to see the pile of bags as they were stacked for onward transmission to a re-cycling facility.’