Dave Bedford & Molly Gadenz from the Lower Regents Coalition write:
So we’ve made it through another year in our humble efforts to make the lower Regent’s Canal better for all. This year marked our 5th anniversary as a group. It also marked the first of what we hope will be more Green Flag Awards for our stretch. We’ve lots to be thankful for in getting us to this point – most especially all of the incredible individuals and groups of people that got stuck in at our events large and small. You motivate us to keep going and do what we do. Also all the support we get from our key partners, Moo Canoes, Ragged School Museum, Canal & River Trust, Thames21, Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, Biodiversity Officer at Tower Hamlets, London Canal Volunteers and Veolia. Thanks to all our volunteers for coming along to help us with everything from planting bulbs to pulling trolleys, bikes, carrier bags filled with who-knows-what and countless amounts of plastic rubbish from the canal. With your help, in 2018 we have…
- Funded the painting of the Kingfisher Nesting Bank near Commercial Rd
- Installed 75 square metres of aquatic plants in the canal
- Planted over 750 perennials, wildflowers and bulbs in our Canal-side meadows
- Removed over 8000 square metres of graffiti along the canal
- Held 65 events attended by 659 volunteers, totalling more than 2800 hours of work!
- Removed over 500 bags of general rubbish and untold bulk items
Going forward we hope to:
- Install more floating reed beds and other plants in the canal
- Install some permanent signage along our stretch
- Continue our clean up events
- Have more fun!
We will be back for the January clean up event with Moo Canoes and the Canal & River Trust on Sunday 27 January – more info nearer the time. To find out how you can help, please e-mail us or check us out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Meanwhile all the best for 2019.
Header photo: creating reed beds above Ben Johnson Lock in December 2018, the final major task of the year (Lower Regents Coalition)
