With a lot of phone calls and bombing a lot of people with emails, the day of the Waterside Millennium Green Clean Up arrived. The litter pickers and gloves had been collected from Pendle Borough Council, the skip had been delivered, and it looked a big un too; the only thing not pre arranged was the weather.

Come the morning of Sunday 27th April the rain arrived as Members of Colne Water Angling Club, Friends of Ball Grove, a local Campaigner and a young local man who had read what we were doing arrived on Bridge Street in Colne, after all, it is his Colne he told me.

The big plan for the day was to remove as much rubbish as possible in the day along the stretch of river through the Millennium Green area. Some of the guys jumped in the river donned up in waders and others remained on the bank to remove the junk and start to fill the skip. The locals soon started to pay an interest in these guys and were soon asking what we were up to. It did make me wonder what we were up to myself; the amount of rubbish that was down there in the river looked scary to say the least, could we really get that lot out in a day I wondered?

Well, with ropes over the bridge we hauled away, this junk was heavy, soaked in water with a good coating of mud. However, us lads at the bottom end of the clean up soon started to make an impact. The others had gone in up stream with the wheelbarrow and told me that they too were making an impact. A local scrap dealer had noticed the action, and asked if he could remove the metal; what a good do, this chap was another pair of hands and a local too. He was joined by a friend of his later on, so yet another pair of local hands helping out. This is what we need, more locals helping out. Perhaps if there was more of this, a lot of the junk wouldn't be strewn across the riverbed in the first place.

Perhaps the Utility Companies could devise a better way of fencing their works off when they dig their holes in our roads as the amount of their plastic barriers that had been thrown in and abandoned must have cost them a few bob. These damned things may be lightweight when on the roadside but when filled with wet river silt really weigh on. So if anyone from these Companies reads these pages, the Trout in the Town Project is open to donations to the clean up fund, after all, you really should dig your own barriers out of the river, and ensure your staff take back what the brought out of the depot.

To bring a bit of extra fun to the day, we also did some kick samples in the river. This involves holding a small net across the river flow and your buddy disturbing the river bed with his boot just upstream. This proved to be both fun and educational, especially to us fly anglers. There were Olives, Caddice and Mayfly Larvae in abundance, so really all the signs of good water quality, we were even planning on organising a race along the sample tray with these fly larvae. The other interesting specimen to land in a tray was a small but perfect Lamprey, which again generated a great interest.

The rubbish was bagged, barrowed, hauled and gathered, and after about seven hours of toil, the skip was almost full. As I sit here this evening aching in my arms and back I have found me thinking about the day, was it worth all the effort? The answer is a huge yes, we have made a difference; when I walked along the stretch of river before calling it a day to nurse my aches and pains the river looked really good. The Dippers were soon back following the disturbance of rubber clad fella's invading their patch, the Robins were hopping down to have a look at us too. But mostly, we have perhaps tugged a few heartstrings and made a good few people look at their beautiful little river and green space in the heart of Colne in a different light. Perhaps the next time I walk that little bit of river, there may be a bit less rubbish thrown in, after all that little bit of river is your wilderness on your doorstep.

From a young member of The Club, to a member who had travelled from Orkney to help out, YOU HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE and a HUGE THANK YOU from The Project Team and Me. Also thank you to Pendle Borough Council and the people of Colne for their support.

For further information on the Trout in the Town Project please email: troutinthetown@yahoo.com Also pay a visit to the Wild Trout Trust and Environment Agency websites linked below.

For further information on Colne Water Angling Club, please email.

colnewaterac@btinternet.com