The Sunday dawn on 27th February in Kingston was met with the sound of boats arriving and TAC volunteers preparing for a day of more rubbish removal.
We all met outside the John Lewis Centre at Kingston riverside 8.30 am for a welcome cuppa and to sort the equipment out. Those in the boats were to spend the day ferrying the rubbish to the barge that the EA Waterways team had moored for us on Turks pier, upstream of where the Hogsmill joins the Thames.
Fourteen volunteers attended along with three children and using grappling hooks, boat hooks, strong rope and a bit of muscle set about pulling out the debris.
As the river was coloured after the rain, it was a journey into the unknown but very quickly it became clear what was in store (or not in the stores!) .
With a fair amount of huffing and puffing the shopping trolleys started to emerge, with the kids identifying a complete set excluding Tesco and Lidl. Added to this a full sized Television which took some lifting
We carried on upstream, with the Hogsmill River receiving the same treatment, an enormous branch, very nearly the width of the river had us all wondering how it got there, proof positive of the power of floodwater.
By lunchtime the EA barge was very nearly full, and we were beginning to wind down when we encountered a large metal ‘wheelie bin’ submerged and upside down. Using one of the boats we eventually managed to get four ropes attached to it, it took nine volunteers to pull it to the surface, where we paused for breath before getting it on the riverbank. It was then dragged barge and manhandled it aboard.
The final result on a very satisfying and enjoyable morning was thirteen shopping trolleys, two bicycles, a TV, seat, scaffold poles, some very large branches, copious amounts of decaying metal, plastic, a solitary traffic cone and the large wheelie bin.
