SPCO

SPCO volunteers

VOLUNTEERS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN
TO ‘CLEAN UP EAST LONDON WATERWAYS’
August 3rd, 2010
Volunteers are meeting every other Saturday at 1pm at the Pavilion in Victoria Park to patrol
the East London waterways clearing up discarded rubbish. Organised by the Hackney based
community arts organisation Start Performing Community Organisation (SPCO), The ‘Clean up
East London’s Waterways’ volunteers will be meeting on the 4th and 18th of September
onwards.
Focusing on the River Lee and the canals around the Olympic site the volunteers regularly
patrol along the Hertford Union Canal and onto Lee navigation finishing at Hackney Marshes
collecting discarded bottles, cans and other unsightly rubbish dumped in or on the banks of
East London waterways.
SPCO Volunteers are equipped with protective gloves and equipment to collect the rubbish.
SPCO has also commissioned a special canoe so that more rubbish can be removed from the
water.
SPCO are the organisers of the forthcoming the ‘World is Your Oyster Festival’ music and arts
green festival which will be held during the last weekend of July 2011 on Hackney Marshes,
next to the Olympic site. The ‘World is Your Oyster Festival’ is planned to be a regular annual
event and SPCO have a licence for five years.
‘The ‘Clean up East London’s Waterways’ campaign is a great opportunity to get involved with
the festival and learn about SPCO as well as contributing to local community and being part of
an ongoing conservation project. The ‘Clean up East London’s Waterways’ is a regular event
occurring on alternative Saturdays which will lead up to ‘The World is your Oyster Festival’ and
the 2012 Olympics.” James Tonner Director SPCO.
Continues/-
‘We’d like to say a big thank you to all the SPCO volunteers’
Sam Thomas, British Waterways’ Maintenance Manager.
“British Waterways is pleased to welcome SPCO to the canal network of East London. It’s great
to see local community groups getting involved with the effort to tidy up the River Lee
Navigation and the waterways in and around the Olympic Park. The time and energy that the
SPCO team is putting into this project is a real boost to the works that the British Waterways
staff undertake on these waterways, removing weed, litter and maintaining the lock
mechanisms on this great stretch of waterway. We’d like to say a big thank you to all the
volunteers.”
Sam Thomas, British Waterways’ Maintenance Manager.
“Volunteers play a crucial role in helping us to keep London’s waterways clean. We work with
over 8,000 volunteers each year to remove more than 6 million litres of litter from London’s
waterways. This is the equivalent of over 54,000 wheelie bins full of litter.”
Chris Coode, River Programmes Manager, Thames21.
All members of the public are welcome as volunteers. Safety equipment and training will be
given. The litter will be sorted as it is collected for recycling. The community takes pride and
will directly benefit from clean East London waterways. Be a part of ‘Clean up East London’s
Waterways’!
For further information please contact:
James Tonner SPCO Director
M: 0044 (0)7891 048 846 Info: 0044 (0)20 3536 0650
Email: info@spco.org.uk www.worldisyouroysterfestival.com
Press information please contact:
Kim Grahame at JUST ASSOCIATES
Tel 0845 388 5814 or 07813 15 66 93
Email: kimgrahame@justassociate.com