With a forecast for heavy rain in East Lancashire I wondered the wisdom of the organising of a working party on the river in March. As an Angler, I don't suppose I mind the rain, but it is hard work for the people on the banks; pulling up all the plastic bags and rubbish that we extricate from the river. As it turned out in the main the rain held off barring a couple of showers and a lot of work was done on the river, banks and the general area of Ball Grove. Some of the Anglers that turned up to work had never fished the river or been up there, so for them it was quite a good experience in so much as it opened up new avenues for them to fish and enjoy.

With the recent spates on the river there was a lot of flotsam that had caught in the overhanging branches, but as with all clean ups it was the amount of plastic bags that really hits home. I don't think there was a single tree in the river basin that didn't have a bag hanging somewhere from a branch, I can only hope that David Penney has a huge success in lessening the amount of plastic bags used in our town.

The other thing that I noticed today was the amount of dog dirt that hadn't been bagged and binned. I find this a total disgrace, the fact that people still take their dog for a walk in a local park and don't bag and bin. I hope that Pendle Borough Council can secure a prosecution or two on this nasty issue and make it headline news; maybe just maybe more people will take it to a bin if this was to happen.

Tree branches that were hanging into the river were trimmed back to prevent plastic and other debris in the river from catching in them. What a total difference this has made to the appearance of the river, it really did look good when I was walking off at the end of the day. There is still a lot of river to clean up and I hope that we can organise another clean up further down stream another day.

Matt from Pendle Council was hard at work with his colleague and some of the Friends of Ball Grove creating new paths, and repairing existing paths. I would also like to thank Matt for allowing us to put all the bags of plastic and other debris on his vehicle for disposal; it certainly filled the back of his truck.

So all in all the day was a huge success and my thanks go to all of those who like me risked it with the dodgy forecast, turned up, worked hard and had a laugh on this important part of our town.

Further working parties will be organised and these will be posted up on here and I will ring around as many people as possible. My aim is to hopefully get a group in and around the Millennium Green area in April.

If you wish to know more about the River and the work that is being undertaken, please drop an email to: troutinthetown@yahoo.com I will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

For details of Colne Water Angling Club, please email: colnewaterac@btinternet.com This River and Park work was conducted as a part of the Trout in the Town Project in association with Colne Water Angling Club, Friends of Ball Grove, Pendle Borough Council, The Wild Trout Trust and The Environment Agency.