LITTER pickers who patrolled the waters around Colchester fished dozens of bags of rubbish from the depths – including three road signs.

A group of like-minded volunteers clubbed together to mark a national clean-up campaign by removing litter from the River Colne.

Organiser Bruce Langley, of Wivenhoe Rivercare Group, said the volunteers used canoes and kayaks to patrol the waters around the Hythe.

He said: “We launched from Wivenhoe Sailing Club with five other volunteers with one canoe and four kayaks.

“We removed litter from the river and riverbank, paddling down towards the Hythe.

“At the same time the Colchester Canoe Club launched from the King Edward Quay at the Hythe and cleared litter towards East Gates.”

Gazette:

The Wivenhoe Society completed a litter pick along the riverbank while Colchester Sea Cadets patrolled the banks around the Hythe.

Mr Langley said: “Between us we removed around 30 bags of litter, three road signs, cones and an old wooden shield.

“It was a really good community event to mark our participation of the Great British Spring Clean.

“A massive thank you to the Wivenhoe Society and the Dunmow Waste Group who donated the use of the skip.”

The clean-up was held to mark Keep Britain Tidy’s national Great British Spring Clean campaign.

Back for its seventh year, the 2022 Great British Spring Clean runs until Sunday.

The first National Spring Clean Day in the UK took place in 1989, with the charity Keep Britain Tidy enlisting the aid of the children’s entertainment characters, the Wombles.

According to the charity’s research, two million people participated in the rubbishclean-up event that year.

Since then, on an annual basis, parks, sidewalks, and public spaces have benefitted from the initiative.