"You're doing a great job there love!"
16 March 2010
Fortunately Saturday dawned dry and I sallied forth to the unknown streets and byways of north east London to the rendezvous at Kingsland Basin.
I walked past Vietnamese restaurants and a mosque and arrived at Kingsland Bridge over the Regent's Canal. There was the Pride of London a workboat already loaded with trolleys, bicycles and other treasures from the dark depths of the canal. A traffic cone had been missed - its ghostly orange and white outline visible in the dark waters under the bridge.
Induction over, I took my picker, plastic sack and drum of special wipes for cleaning graffiti and went forth along the towpath. The greatest hazard was the cyclists, but at least most of them sounded their bell. My greatest fear as I leaned over the water to pick out cans, bottles and other detritus (why does so much polystyrene find its way into canals??), was if some passing joker pushed me in.
I was heartened by the support from passers by who were very impressed by our public spiritedness in volunteering to clean up the towpath and canal. Indeed I was touched by the call from a group of lads (who might well enjoy dropping cans into the canal.) "You're doing a great job there, love."
Rubbing off the graffiti was hard work and my spirit fell when one of the local volunteers commented that 'it would probably all be back on again tonight.' It certainly made me appreciate the enormous hardwork BW linesmen put into clearing up their waterways. A never ending and somewhat thankless task on London's canals.
However, there was a real spirit of camaraderie. I met a great group of people who loved their local canal and was also delighted to discover that, seeing our example, there are plenty of people out there who would be prepared to volunteer too!
By Pam Griffin, inland waterways team, Defra
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