Taking place on Saturday 30 March between 10am-2pm, the clean-up is just one of thousands of events taking place across the country as part of the Keep Britain Tidy Great British Spring Clean. Meeting at Middleport Park Pavilion, volunteers will be armed with litter pickers and rubbish bags and will be asked to help remove litter from along the canal towpath and the surrounding area.
Simon Papprill, enterprise manager from the Canal & River Trust, said: “It's thanks to the efforts of local volunteers and groups like Middleport Matters Community Trust that we can help keep our waterways a lovely place to visit. We really appreciate the work they do. This follows lots of work going on in with partners like Stoke-on-Trent City Council to open up the canals to more people and make them more inviting.
“The event on Saturday is a great way to meet other people in your local community and the chance to spend some time along the canal. With recent research showing that being next to water is good for your mental and physical wellbeing, I would urge everyone to come along to this event and spend an hour or so out on the towpath and just enjoy being out and getting some fresh air.”
Amelia Bilson, from Middleport Matters Community Trust, said: “We did this event last year and we collected a massive 180 bags of rubbish from the towpath and local area and we are hoping to beat that number this year.
“This stretch of the Trent & Mersey Canal through Middleport is really lovely and it's great when the community come together to help look after it. Spring is a lovely time of the year to visit the waterways as a lot of the plants and animals living along start to wake up after their winter hibernation. I really would encourage local people to come and visit and see for themselves how lucky we are to have the canal right on our doorstep.”
All tools and equipment are provided. Volunteers should wear sensible shoes and dress according to the weather.
