Over the last year or so there has been much talk of the Big Society. The question often asked is:  what does it all mean?

Part of that Big Society agenda involves ‘social action’ which I can only describe as giving your time to work for the community. In Nuneaton we see a huge amount of ‘social action’.   Last week was no exception when I was proud to be involved in a prime example of social action - both in the waters and on the banks of the River Anker.

For some years now - along with many others - I have wanted to see our river cleared and kept properly so that the river is far more of a feature for our town of which we can be proud.  Many have shared that vision over the years but, until now, for one reason and another it has not been possible to achieve.

That is until last year when I met an officer of the Angling Trust organisation at the House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Angling Group.  After a relatively short discussion the idea was born and it snowballed from there.

Over the winter, Keep Britain Tidy and the Environment Agency came on board. Chris Redstall of Keep Britain Tidy then did a magnificent job of co-ordinating all of the local contacts I had made. So last Saturday after a number of months planning for the event I was delighted to see 60 local people turn out to help clean up our river.

After several hours hard work both in the water and on the river bank we accumulated four lorry loads of rubbish, varying from hundreds of bottles to shopping trolleys , road cones and even a bike.   A haul of over one ton in weight!  A quite fantastic achievement which gave me great satisfaction, as I know it provided all the other volunteers.

I would like to express my thanks to all those who put in their time and effort into making the clean-up happen and for making it such a success. We had fantastic support from The Scouts, McDonald’s restaurants, Friends of the Earth, the local Nepalese community, Keep Britain Tidy, The Environment Agency, The Angling Trust, Wyken Angling Club and the officers and staff from Nuneaton & Bedworth Council together with a number of individual residents, all keen to see their river cleaned up.  (If I have missed anyone out, please forgive me!).

Regrettably, we didn’t have time to achieve all we set out to do and on occasions circumstances went against us – one instance was a Moorhen that had made her nesting place on top of a shopping trolley, which for obvious reasons we could not remove.

I really do hope that we can organise a similar event annually in order to keep the river in tip top condition. From this project, my greatest aspiration is the hope that there may be others in our community who observed our efforts and may just think twice before dispatching their rubbish into the Anker.