Back to the mess at Old Ford Lock

Old Ford Lock (on the Lee Navigation)

After our clean-up six weeks ago, things didn't get any better. More rubbish was left at the refuse site, outside of any bins. Some was dumped in the hopper. Then a week ago, the sanitary station was crudely vandalised, basins smashed and the Elsan plumbing ripped out and left to flood the building.

This is how we found it this morning...

BEFORE

A large group of volunteers, plus Sorwar Ahmed, Alex the new East of London Mooring Ranger, and a CRT operative turned up on site on Wednesday, with a fresh new, empty hopper, a weedboat, a van of tools and some determination.

First we had to physically wrestle the mis-aligned slides of the hopper back into place so they could be pushed open. Then while the operative and Alex took care of scooping trash from inside the lock chamber, the other volunteers began to clear all the dumped refuse from the site that our contractors would never take away. It all went in the hopper.

Then we also cleared the broken rubbish from the sanitary station. That went in the hopper too. Finally RE and CK used the London Canal Volunteer boat to chase down the last of the trash from the lock chamber.

AFTER!

This was along hard, smelly morning's work.

1 day, 4 hours.