LANCASHIRE Evening Telegraph nature expert Ron Freethy was on top of the world today after picking up top prize for the World's Best River Clean Up Initiative.

Ron, of Roughlee, in Pendle, travelled to Australia on behalf of the Mersey Basin Campaign to collect the prize at the world's first River Symposium in Brisbane after being involved with the campaign for more than 15 years.

He joined in 1984, a year before it was officially set up in 1985, and has been instrumental in its work.

The project, which is government sponsored until 2010, includes the River Valley Initiative to clean up waterways between the River Mersey and River Ribble, including East Lancashire's River Darwen as well as another project based around Pendle Water and the River Calder.

It aims to clean up rivers so more fish will live in the water and was among more than 100 entries for the competition, beating off similar schemes in America, Canada, South Africa and Germany to land the top prize.

Ron, who is in Australia to collect the trophy and a prize of A$100,000 (about £41,000) with his wife Marlene, said: "It's not just a victory for the Mersey Basin Campaign but for all of the North West and England as a whole.

"In the North West we take a lot of stick about our dark, satanic mills and all that and here we are with the best river clean up system in the world - and we haven't finished yet." Ron also praised the Environment Agency and North West Water for their part in the campaign's success.

He said: "Over the past 14 years we have had many fruitful meetings with both and we're all working together on this. People think the Environment Agency and North West Water are constantly in conflict but they work together to identify the problems and solve them.

"The Mersey Basin Campaign would like to celebrate the work done by these two bodies who deserve a share in the kudos that comes with this prize. "The local media are also important to publicise the work of the campaign and the Evening Telegraph with its own successful Grimewatch campaign has given the Mersey Basin lots of support. "We have just begun a fish survey of the rivers in the Mersey Basin Campaign thanks to funding from NatWest bank and scientists from both the Environment Agency and North West Water are involved." Joe Dwek, chairman of the campaign, said the prize was a major accolade. "Clean water is vital for the economy and well being of the area and while we still have some way to go, our successes have been recognised."

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