Reg. Charity No. 1091000

A couple of weeks ago, BBC Open Country presenter Helen Mark and producer Steve Peacock visited the Wandle, exploring the river from Morden Hall downstream to Earlsfield.

Along the way they met up with many of our friends and partners from the Living Wandle project, including Zoe Colbeck from the National Trust, Tanya Houston from the fisheries arm of the Environment Agency, and Steve Dedman and Bill Skipsey of the Morden Hall Park Angling Club.  

Finally, at Trewint Street, they caught up with Bella and me to talk about river restoration, community cleanups, blown-out safes, and turning South London back to face the Wandle – and you can click here to listen again to the whole programme on BBC Radio 4’s iPlayer for the next month or so!

Before Christmas we urged you to vote for your favourite park in Croydon to be in with a chance of sharing the £1.5 million available.  Four of these parks were along the River Wandle or its tributary the Norbury Brook and we are very pleased to say that all four were amongst the winners of the ‘Parks to be Proud of’ initiative!

Wandle Park, Thornton Heath Recreation Ground, Norbury Park and Waddon Ponds are amongst nine parks to share the prize money, which is spent over and above ongoing programmes of general works and Croydon council will shortly be asking local people what they would like to see happen in these parks.

If you’re asked, please do think of the Wandle and Norbury Brook and how they might be improved, for example, by helping to bring the Wandle above ground through Wandle Park, or by restoring the Norbury Brook which currently runs in a concrete ditch alongside Thornton Heath Recreation Ground and underneath Norbury Park.

The one with the Big Freeze and all the tyres

We know it’s probably tempting fate to say it… but as our regular volunteers can confirm, there’s very little that gets in the way of a Wandle cleanup.

Undeterred by a 30-year-record week of snow and ice, Erica and Nick loaded up the van in Battersea and headed for the arctic wastes of Poulter Park in Sutton, where we lined up the barrows by the water, and started pulling stuff out.

And there was lots of it, including the heaviest concentration of tyres we’ve ever found at a single cleanup…

… as well as several car seats and other random bits of motor vehicle (we’re saying nothing about the proximity of various repair and scrappage businesses in this area – just drawing our own conclusions and wondering if they’d like to help sponsor some of our future community cleanups?)

With no more than 4 or 5 volunteers in the water at any one time, the flow of rubbish was still strong enough to keep the barrows shuttling busily along the banks, and Peter led the charge up the snowy slope to the playing fields where Sutton Council would collect it all for us:

As usual, there were lighter moments too: surreal signs, strangely seasonal toys, and even a golf trolley for Jason!

Finally, with dusk falling and sleet in the air, we stopped for a team photo and another warming cuppa, and reluctantly called it a day…

… but not before counting what we’d pulled out of the river:

80 tyres, 17 traffic cones, 8 carpets, 5 mattresses, 4 car seats, 4 bicycles, 4 pallets, 2 water tanks, 2 kid’s scooters, 2 vacuum cleaners, 1 windscreen, 1 oil drum, 1 tool box, 1 computer, 1 Tesco shopping trolley, and a football, plus another couple of tonnes of assorted rubbish!

Thanks to all our volunteers: Allan, Andy, Ann, Anna, Anthea, David, Erica, Gideon, Jason, Jo H, Jo S, Nick, Peter, Roger, Sally, Steve, Tina, Theo and Toby

The one when we were sponsored by…

For the first time ever, this was a Wandle Trust cleanup sponsored by an outdoor company: Original Buff, makers of multifunctional headwear who’d been introduced to us by Laneo, a global initiative connecting people, brands and environmental groups so that they can support each other in cleaning up the planet.

(A most excellent idea, we’d have to agree!)

Maybe it was just another mark of favour from the gods of outdoor wholesale… but following the wettest November on record, the middle Wandle was running mercifully low and clear by the time we met in Merton between Plough Lane and the Graveney confluence.

During past cleanups we’d already addressed a stretch just upstream, so this was a move down into previously-untackled territory.  

And it showed, with at least three eel-filled (yes, really) motorbikes lurking just below the surface…

… besides a car seat and rolling acres of carpet…

… and even a mangled collection of bicycles, still securely padlocked together but now carefully stripped of all parts that weren’t…

As befitted our Christmas cleanup, Guinness cake and mince pies met with a rapturous reception at coffee time:

Inspired by Jo, even the gazebo had a festive air…

… so somehow no-one was surprised when Santa bobbed to the surface of the river shortly afterwards, hard on the heels of last month’s warbling leprechaun (though, of the two, St Nick looked rather the worse for wear):

All the way to dusk, the trolleys and barrows of rubbish just kept coming…

… until we finally wrapped up with a triumphant team photo beside several tonnes of waterlogged rubbish, all from just 50m of river…

… and a general exodus for well-deserved Christmas pints at the popular Leather Bottle!

Thanks to all our volunteers: Allan, Andy B, Andy K, Anna, Carol, Carolyn, Dave, Diana, Dominic, Erica, Felix, Forrest, Gideon, Henry, James F, James Y, Jamie, Jane, Jason, Jo H, Jo S, Justin, Ken, Max, Mike H, Mike S, Natasha, Neil, Nick M, Nick S, Nico, Olivia, Paul, Peter, Rigby, Rob, Roger, Rory, Sally, Sarah, Sihong, Sue B, Sue V, and Theo

… as well as Merton Council – and of course Original Buff and Laneo – for generously supporting our efforts.

We are hoping that Wandle Park will be amongst the winners as the funding will help to bring the River Wandle, which is currently culverted under the park, back to the surface.  Some money has already been secured for this (e.g. through the Mayor’s Parks’ funding) but more is needed for it to become a reality. 

There are other parks along the Wandle and its tributary the Norbury Brook (Norbury Park, Thornton Heath Recreation Ground and Waddon Ponds) and we would like to encourage people voting for these parks to suggest that any winnings include plans to improve the river or brook.

You can read more about the ‘Parks to be Proud of’ competition and place your vote here before 24^th December.

On the eve of what promises to be a chilly December cleanup, it’s warming to see that the London Evening Standard has noticed our efforts…

… and interviewed Wandle Trustee and Cleanup Co-ordinator Erica Evans (yes, that’s her on the right in the fetching fluorescent jacket) for their latest Looking after London column, entitled We’ve found five safes dumped in the Wandle:

“The River Wandle flows near my home in south west London so when I decided to get involved in something to do with the environment, I chose to support the Wandle Trust…

I think that people now know and realise that green spaces are good for people and our environment and to have a living thing flowing through an urban part of London is something that is significant and important. If only we could stop people chucking rubbish into the river.

During our November cleanup alone we found seven motor bikes and five safes – one with a hole blown in the back of it! – as well as tyres, traffic signs, carpets and a mass of other rubbish.”

Click here to read Erica’s full interview… and wrap up warm for our Christmas cleanup tomorrow!

Yesterday I went to meet the Minister for Marine and Natural Environment, Huw Irranca-Davies, on the banks of the Thames at Westminster and bizarrely enough, whilst others wore suits, I wore my waders!

Left to right: Charlie Butt, RSPB, Bella Davies, Wandle Trust, Rose Timlett, WWF UK, Huw Irranca-Davies, Minister for Marine and Natural Environment, Ralph Underhill, RSPB, Charlotte Hitchmough, Association for the River Kennet, Mark Lloyd, Angling Trust, Archie Ruggles-Brise, Association of Rivers Trust ©Stonehouse Photographic / WWF-UK

I was part of a group from the RSPB, WWF UK, the Association of Rivers Trusts, the Angling Trust and Action for the River Kennet (ARK) who went to ask the Minister to ensure that the new river management plans, which are published next month as part of the Water Framework Directive, will take notice of important local issues which have been omitted from the plans for many rivers.  Hence, Charlotte from ARK and I were asked to wear waders to show that we actually get out there in our rivers and that our organisations and supporters hold a lot of valuable information about our local rivers.

The Water Framework Directive is a piece of European legislation which requires all rivers (and large lakes) to reach a ‘Good’ ecological status by 2015, or in the case of rivers that have been heavily modified through engineering and urbanisation, such as the Wandle, a ‘Good’ ecological potential.  You can read about the process here.

The Environment Agency was charged with the work to meet this target and part of the process has required extensive consultation to identify what the issues are on each river and what is currently being done about them. 

The Wandle Trust responded to this public consultation earlier this year, and the Environment Agency has now published a preliminary version of their final River Basin Management Plans, which outlines the current state of each river (the Wandle is currently classed as ‘Poor’) and what is being done to improve it. (You can read about the EA’s assessment of the Wandle on pages 401 and 408 of Annex B, and what is being planned to improve the river in Annex C, downloadable here).  The final version, which will be presented to Europe, will be published on 22^nd December.

The Minister was interested in our work at the Wandle Trust and particularly our cleanups as he’d recently joined Thames 21 to remove litter from the banks of the Thames.  We presented him with a map showing where local supporters, river action groups and MPs have been ‘standing up for their river’ through the Our Rivers campaign website.

Organisers of the Our Rivers campaign then grilled the Minister for answers to their questions on camera.  Our Rivers was set up by the RSPB, WWF UK, the Association of Rivers Trusts and the Angling Trust to help encourage people who know and care about their local river to fill the gaps in understanding and help the Environment Agency implement the Water Framework Directive.

You can still Stand Up for the Wandle by adopting the River Wandle on the Our Rivers website (www.ourrivers.org.uk) and contributing your own local knowledge about our local river.

Click here to download our press release (in pdf format) about the Wandle Trust’s involvement in the Our Rivers campaign.

Last week’s inaugural London leg of the international RISE fly-fishing film festival wasn’t notable just for its fishy sequences (though there were also plenty of those to keep the hardcore anglers amongst us happy).

No… what impressed us was the way the festival opened with a showing of Charles Rangeley-Wilson’s new environmental film for WWF UK: the next stage of the Rivers on the Edge campaign which launched earlier this year.

As Charles also says over on Caught by the River:

Chalkstreams are unique.  A globally rich, significant and amazing habitat.  But many are on the edge of survival.  Abstraction licences were given when no-one thought the pumping of water would have an impact…

But what price a river?  A river is priceless.  Especially if it is possible to have healthy rivers and an adequate supply of affordable water.

Overall, the message is clear: in the dry south of England, we all somehow need to use less water, and recognise the value of what we do consume and flush down our drains.

If we don’t, chalkstreams like the Wandle (which would scarcely be flowing at all if it weren’t for Sutton & East Surrey’s water recirculation system on the section south of Goat Bridge, or the input of treated sewage effluent from Thames Water’s Beddington works from Goat Bridge north to the Thames) won’t have much of a future.

It’s a big problem. But luckily it’s something we all have the power to influence.

The one with the inner-tube tourists (and lots more safes and bikes)

A record 70 (count ‘em!) volunteers turned out for our early November cleanup at Trewint Street in Earlsfield: many motivated young people from Richmond College and Burntwood School in particular, and more in total than we’ve seen since our previous-best last month and at Poulter Park in May 2008.

After Erica’s Health and Safety briefing, we warmed up quickly with a fridge from the concrete apron above the bridge…

… then fanned downstream as far as the Ravensbury Terrace stretch, last visited during September’s World Rivers Day cleanup and Himalayan balsam bash.

In the deep pool below the concrete point, the day’s main challenge slowly swam into focus for Chris and Jim at least: more safes (all 5 disappointingly empty) than we’ve ever found in a single cleanup:

Some of these stimulated real command-task focus from kids and heavy brigade alike … with tyres, crowbars, grapples, trolleys and monkey-wrenches pressed into service to get such solid lumps of metal and concrete out of the river, over the railings and down to the collection area:

Coffee time was enlivened by the discovery of a singing leprechaun… complete with still-working batteries and a suitably liquid rendition of Irish Rover…

… and satirical speculations about a couple of intrepid river-tourists who floated past on inner tubes (we’re still not sure their umbrella will have saved them from the culvert under the Southside Centre!)

Refreshed by laughter, soup, flapjacks and home-made Swiss rolls from Sally and Jo, we returned to the river at the notorious “motorbike pool”, and extracted a succession of sorry-looking wheels and frames, an amazing 7 machines in total:

… once again, more than enough to shock our friends from Wandsworth Council when they turned up with the lorry for us to fill…

… leading naturally to drinks at the Leather Bottle and dreams of ambitious cleanups to come!

Thanks to all our volunteers: Allan, Andy B, Andy C, Ann, Barry, Brendan, Carol, Caroline, Catherine, Charlie, Chris, David H, David L, Diana, Doug, Douglas, Ella C, Ella K, Erica, Fatama, Forrest, Gabi, Gideon, Helen, Hope, Jackie, Jacopo, James, Jan, Jane, Jim, Jo H, Jo S, Jo S, Katherine, Keith, Khalid, Laura, Louisa, Luko, Mahelet, Max, Mike, Mireille, Mohammed B, Mohammed D, Neil, Nicholas, Nick, Nico, Nigel, Nisling, Olivia, Omar, Paul, Rigby, Rory, Salam, Sally, Sami, Sara, Sarah, Smitale, Steve, Sue, Theo, Toby, Tom, Tony, and Wayne

The Wandle Trust’s charity Christmas cards for 2009 are now available – and just like last year, we’re encouraging all our supporters and volunteers to buy and send as many as they can.

For Christmas 2009, we’ve taken the lower river as our theme, with a wintry (industrial-chic!) composition of the iconic Earlsfield railway bridge snapped by the Wandle Trust’s Secretary of Trustees, Erica Evans.

As usual, our A5 cards have been printed locally, and are available at just £5 per pack of 10.  All profits will go directly to help the work of the Wandle Trust. 

You can buy your cards at our December cleanup, where limited numbers of previous years’ cards will also be available.

Alternatively, you can buy them online via this website and your Paypal account, and have them sent to you.  Here’s how:

Check the price of the number of packs you want, plus Royal Mail 1^st class postage and packaging, from the table below:

• 1 pack of 10 cards plus 1^st class P&P: £7.40
• 2 packs of 10 cards plus 1^st class P&P: £12.95
• 3 packs of 10 cards plus 1^st class P&P: £18.60
• 4 packs of 10 cards plus 1^st class P&P: £24.85
• 5 packs of 10 cards plus 1^st class P&P: £31.30
• 6 packs of 10 cards plus 1^st class P&P: £37.05
• More than 6 packs: please email sales@wandletrust.org for details

Then make your payment via the Paypal link on the left hand side of this page, and email us at sales@wandletrust.org confirming your Paypal payment, the number of packs you want, and (most importantly) your postal address.  We’ll aim to send your cards within 2 working days of receiving your order.

If you don’t want to buy online, you can also send us a cheque for the number of packs of cards you’d like, plus the appropriate amount for postage and packaging.  Please make your cheque payable to The Wandle Trust, and send it to: 75 Mill Lane, Carshalton, Surrey SM5 2JS.

Happy Christmas shopping – and thank you for your support!