Pressure from Wirral groups results in Marine Lake clean-up

Jun 25 2008 by Matt Hurst, Wallasey News

NEW Brighton Marine Lake should be free from litter and clutter after pressure from local groups resulted in a clean-up operation.

Margaret Coles has lived in the area for 22 years and took photos of families enjoying the sun, sea and sand but dodging chip wrappers and plastic bottles.

She told the News it “saddened” her to see children catching more crisp packets than fish when they dipped their nets.

But Margaret, a member of Friends of New Brighton Marine Lake, says improvements seem to have been made and the area should now be kept safe, clean and full of life.

She said: “As a group, we’ve cleaned the lake for quite a while but I decided to leave it from April so it could be seen how much rubbish had accumulated and something done about it.”

To help make her point, Margaret took photographs this month, showing the marine lake being enjoyed as the weather heated up despite the piles of waste building up in corners and floating on the water’s surface.

Wirral Council says it has licensed the lake to a private firm called Safe Water Training, for use as a boating area, and responsibility for maintaining the lake now falls into its hands.

Brian Atherton, principal of Safe Water Training, said: “Subsequent to taking over the lake, the photograph was sent to us and we were appalled by what we saw.

“The lake needed a really good clean so we filled three Biffa bins and took loads to the tip.

“Once a week now we will do a water clean-up with a boat and every morning one of our staff will walk the perimeter picking up litter to keep the site clean.”

Margaret added: “Families love crabbing in the lake because they can sit and have a chat while the kids crab.

“Children love using a net to see what interesting creatures live in the lake and it saddened me to see them doing that among piles of rubbish.

“Now the work for the clean-up is being carried out, hopefully we won’t see it in the future.”