In a quiet corner of Wigan in Lancashire, the River Douglas passes under the Leeds/Liverpool canal in a magnificent Victorian syphon structure that allows the river to proceed under the canal away towards Tarleton. Sadly, the syphon creates a barrier to floating debris so all the wood, plastic bottles, tennis balls and other rubbish get caught there. In a way, that’s a good thing because it prevents all the rubbish from passing down the river and into the sea, but it means that every year the rubbish all needs to be lifted out of the river and disposed of. That’s where the excellent Douglas Catchment Partnership comes in, with Stormwater Shepherds as one of its Members. The partnership is made up of all the Local Authorities, the County Council, the water company and an array of magnificent local Charities and Businesses who work in environment protection. It is hosted by Groundwork Cheshire, Lancashire & Merseyside and we all worked together to organise the clean-up of the Green Street Syphon in August this year, having already done it in May 2021. The team worked hard, with the contractors from Ipsum and RAM Safety Solutions there to lift all the rubbish up safely and to sort it into a skip. We found over 1000 plastic bottles, over 100 polystyrene food packets and almost 100 small dog-toy balls! We are going to speak to some of the businesses in the town who are close to the river to see if they can reduce the amount of litter getting into the river in the first place. And maybe we can ask the dog-walkers of Wigan to throw their balls more carefully! Have you got a litter grot-spot in your town that you can clean up with a group of friends or business partners?
