Earlier this month, intrepid colleagues from ‘Better’ leisure centres in Lewisham jumped into the river Quaggy to support the local council’s annual ‘3 River Clean Up’ initiative.
Managers Hannah Gilmour, Matthew Houghton, Lindsay Carrey, Krzysztof Lasek, Steve Streadwick and William Mannell worked alongside the Nature Conservation Officer and Project Manager from Lewisham’s Nature Neighbourhoods, Nature Towns & Cities team.
Together, they cleaned a section of the Quaggy at its confluence with the river Ravensbourne which involved a litter pick as well as clearing an invasive Himalayan plant. The Environment Agency was also present to support with the clean-up and to help educate the team about the ecology around the river.
By the end of the 2-hour session, the team had collected over 9 large bin bags of rubbish and removed roughly 1,000 invasive plants – along with the obligatory shopping trolleys and a child’s bike!
Representatives from Lewisham Council were impressed at how hard the GLL team worked in the heat and the speed and efficiency with which they managed to clear so much of the invasive weed. Both sides spoke about working together again in future as well as promoting future volunteering opportunities in the borough to leisure centre users.
Better leisure centres are run by charitable social enterprise GLL in partnership with the local authority. Respecting the planet is one of the organisation’s key values.
Matthew Houghton, GLL’s Community Sport Manager in the borough, comments, “It was a lot of work and there were a few ‘hairy’ moments when a colleague spotted an eel but it was really rewarding to work as a team and ‘give back’ to the local environment.”
