VOLUNTEERS who help to keep the River Colne clean have urged residents to take more responsibility when it comes to disposing of their rubbish.

Members of Halstead River Colne Cleaning Group team up with volunteers from Halstead in Bloom on a monthly basis to keep the town’s river clear and tidy.

During their latest clean up, the team discovered a variety of items that had been dumped in the river such as a bike, wheelbarrows and traffic cones.

Volunteer Alan Howard said: “We pulled out what looks like a brand new bike with flat tyres.

“You wonder why anyone would throw that into a river.

“It’s very disappointing that people are doing this kind of thing but we have had much worse clean ups.

“There was once a load of tyres and parts of a car dumped in there.

“If I’m honest, I will go down to the river next Friday and find more stuff just dumped in there.”

Though many of the volunteers have become accustomed to seeing a wide range of items left abandoned in the water, Jane Giffould, says the key to stopping people is education.

She added: “Some of the items we find have been dumped some time ago.

“We don’t like the look of it but unfortunately we expect it to happen.

“It is important to educate people from the word go that it really is not a good idea to dump stuff in the river.

“It costs money to have it cleaned and if it wasn’t for volunteers it’s unlikely it would get looked at.

“People are always throwing good stuff away, the general attitude seems to be it doesn’t matter if we throw it into the river.

“At the end of the day people need to take more responsibility and think about the consequences of what they are actually doing.”

Anyone interested in volunteering and helping the clean up effort should contact jgiffould@aol.com.