Event 123: Caerphilly Castle

CRG ventured north to Caerphilly this Mother’s Day to give some love to Mother Nature.

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Whilst most visitors to Caerphilly Castle were there to see a fearsome Dragon, the 22 volunteers were searching for nasty rubbish in the undergrowth, and they did not have to search hard!

Braving chilly conditions, they set out to clean the stream that feeds the castle moat and the surrounding area. The haul included 45 bags of general rubbish, 12 tyres, a wheelchair, lots of piping,  several cones, plus various larger waste items.

More photos can be seen on CRG’s Flickr.

Wayne David, MP for Caerphilly, popped over to thank the volunteers when he saw them in action as he was visiting the dragon.  Volunteers from DS Smith also joined in the fun.

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Wayne David MP (centre), with Andy King (KWT, left) and Dave King (CRG, right, no relation!)

The group were assisted by Andy King, Keep Wales Tidy community officer for Caerphilly who said,

”I am so grateful to Cardiff Rivers Group for venturing outside their normal patch today. This stream has been on my hitlist for ages as it really is in a terrible state. People have been tipping rubbish in it for years and it is an important habitat. I hope that now it has been cleaned, that local people do not throw any more rubbish into it irresponsibly. I am delighted that some locals got their wellies on today to lend a hand. I hope that I can now form a local group of volunteers to look after this important watercourse in the future”

Louise Tambini, group member said,

We enjoy our daytrips out of Cardiff so were delighted to help out at this event.  It was good to talk to so many locals and I hope we can inspire some to set up their own volunteer rivers group, just as we did over 6 years ago. This stream really was an eyesore, but with a few hours of hard work it has been transformed. The local herons now don’t have to tread on rubbish as they hunt fish!”

Our thanks to Caerphilly CBC who are disposing of all the collected waste.