This is the incredible amount of rubbish dredged out of Milton Keynes canal in just two days
Boatloads of rubbish including a freezer and a pedal car have been hauled out of the canal in a major clean up operation.
TheMilton KeynesBranch of the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) last week undertook its first Canal Clean-up event through Milton Keynes since October 2019.
Held over two days, the event resulted in tonnes of rubbish being collected from the water.
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Volunteersfrom IWA, the Canal &River Trustand the Parks Trust concentrated upon ten miles of towpath through the city from Fenny Stratford to Wolverton.Othersaboard a hopper hauled items from the water using grappling hooks and collected the rubbish gathered by the towpath volunteers.
A pan (shallow-draft workboat), was also used to collect rubbish from the non-towpath side of the canal.
Among the rubbish collected were two bikes, one high-chair, a pedal car, a freezer, a large tv aerial, and lots of pipe and scrap.
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The hopper crew also took time to haul out some fallen branches.
Tim Armstrong, Chairman of IWA Milton Keynes Branch, said: “Our thanks go to Canal & River Trust, the Parks Trust and Wyvern Shipping for their support with
equipment, motive power or resources, to their volunteers, and to the branch members who took part.
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“Everybody bought into the spirit of the event. All were kept occupied dealing with the rubbish, and nobody complained of boredom!
"It’s just a pity that we have to clear up after the small minority who don’t appreciate the waterway but use it as a rubbish dump.”
A total of 328.5 man hours was put in over the two days, and many passers-by applauded the volunteers’ efforts,