A couple who found themselves twiddling their thumbs during lockdown decided to take matters into their own hands when they saw the amount of litter in the River Colne – and are still fishing debris out from the riverbed 18 months on.

Jasamine Jackdaw, 44, and Jonny Buffalo, 54, own and run The Blackwater Fair, a vintage maritime fairground in Langham.

But when it was forced to close during the Covid-19 pandemic, they had little to do with their business forced to shut its doors.

So, they decided to turn their hand to cleaning up the River Colne, which regularly finds itself filled with traffic cones from roadworks and shopping trolleys from the nearby Tesco.

The Hythe Station Road repairs have caused particular problems with litter, but Ms Jackdaw and her partner Mr Buffalo are determined to help the area clean up its act.

She said: “During the lockdown, we looked out on to the river bank and thought: ‘Someone should really do something about this’, though the sentence that immediately followed that was: ‘We should really do something about this’.”

“We got a boat and started trying to fish things out of the river.

Ms Jackdaw and Mr Buffalo have found an unlikely ally in the form of TrolleyWise, a company employed by various supermarkets which collects and returns trolleys people have taken off shop premises.

“They were really supportive,” Ms Jackdaw said.

“The river is tidal so getting the trolleys out is specialist work.”

The couple has removed so much litter from the river bed the quayside is overflowing with rubbish.

“We’ve fished out over 50 road cones – Essex Highways will replace the road cones, but then nothing gets collected from the quayside.

“They might as well be throwing their money into the river.”

Ms Jackdaw and Mr Buffalo – both artists by trade – also run their own website called Seanet, as they try to recruit more volunteers to purge the river.

“We just need to get this situation cleaned up so people can be proud of their area again,” Ms Jackdaw said.