Havering Council has joined forces with Thames Chase Trust to clean up a river in Harold Hill as part of its flagship Where We Live campaign.
Where We Live, encourages everyone to help keep our borough cleaner, greener, and safer.
Recently, it was all about helping to keep our rivers and streams cleaner Councillor Ray Morgon, Leader of the Council, Councillor Barry Mugglestone, Havering’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Councillor Graham Williamson, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, joined Thames Chase Trust and 13 volunteers along the Paines Brook at Central Park, Harold Hill.
The aim was to clear the rubbish that people dump in the river and carry out a litter pick around the river banks.
Across five hours, they collected 48 bin bags of litter, which included everything from crisp wrappers, bottles and cans to dog waste bags.
In addition to that, bigger items which had been dumped in the river, were also cleared.
This included a sofa, a park bench, chairs, a huge TV flat-screen, gas boiler, vacuum cleaner and shopping trolleys.
Volunteers came from the Trust, Havering Green Streets, Wombles groups and the local community, who are all determined to help improve the health of the river which is a big part of the park and the surrounding areas.
Councillor Ray Morgon, Leader of Havering Council, said:
“As part of our Where We Live campaign, we are encouraging everyone to help us keep our borough cleaner and greener, this includes taking care of the nature around us.
“Here in Havering, we are blessed with wonderful parks and open spaces, plus rivers and streams that wind their way through our communities and are a habitat for wildlife.
“Sadly, too many of these are places fall victim to people dropping litter or fly-tipping. This anti-social behaviour impacts our wildlife and green spaces and affects everyone and is something we won’t tolerate.
“Thames Chase Trust does an amazing job helping to keep our waterways clean and vibrant and it is great to be working with them to help them do this.
“I would also like to say a big thank you to all the volunteers who support this by carrying out litter picks, tree planting and other work too.”
James Doyle, Thames Chase Programmes Officer, said:
“What a fantastic, rewarding day! Over 560 metres, we were able to remove 240kg of litter and many large items from the Paines Brook.
“Thank you to all of the fantastic volunteers who took part in this event to keep our local rivers clean”.