Locals cleaning-up Bridgewater Canal

Published: Monday, 18 March 2019

A WOMAN is taking on the task of cleaning-up the Bridgewater Canal in Leigh as its owners have given up any attempt to do the job.

Belinda John, one of Keep Britain Tidy’s 100 Litter Hero Ambassadors, is encouraging the local community to join her for the Great British Spring Clean on the Bridgewater Canal in Leigh, Alan Tilbury reports.

Annoyance

She speaks of her annoyance at seeing the state of the waterway that is strewn with rubbish and is asking for volunteers to join her and her partner Kevin Little on the 24th March to have a massive clean-up of all the rubbish, both on the towpath and in the water.

Now that Peel Holdings no longer attempts to clean the waterway parts of it are getting into a disgusting state, and Belinda, who has been involved in other clean-ups remarks of the feeling of freshness and cleanliness when an attempt has been made to clear away all the rubbish, telling Wigan Today:

Public event

“My partner and I pick litter when we go out anyway but because it’s the Great British Spring Clean I’ve organised a public event.

“There’s quite a lot of rubbish. People throw stuff like crisp packets and bags of dog mess and it all ends up in the canal.

“When we’re litter picking people often stop to ask what we are doing, so there’s obviously a group out there who try to maintain the area, but others just use it as a dumping ground.

“It’s a shame some people are spoiling it because there are ducks and swans on the canal and it’s a really nice area which is used by runners, cyclists, dog walkers and people going to school.

Litter pickers will meet at the Canal Turn pub on the 24th March.