People have taken to social media to condemn the rubbish-strewn state of a town’s brook - on the day a flood alert was posted for the area.
These pictures were posted on the Spotted Loughborough Facebook page on Monday (June 24) by someone concerned amount the huge mass of rubbish, including bottles and numerous footballs floating in Wood Brook, in Lisle Street, Loughborough.
The poster said: “This is the Wood Brook that runs through Loughborough, people should be ashamed of the plastic waste going into our beautiful rivers and lakes.
“This is at the bottom of Lisle Street passing under the canal.”
The comment attracted wide support on the Facebook page as well as offers to volunteer to clean up the rubbish choked brook.
"This is disgusting. What the hell are we doing to our environment?”
“Horrible too see think Loughborough needs more street cleaners as soon as possible and ready everyone in Loughborough may have to start helping out as it will never really get any better till us people have control over things like this.”
“This is heartbreaking and annoying all at the same time! I feel like cleaning this mess up for the sake of the wildlife.”
“I am willing to put my name forward to help clean it up, anyone else? I love Loughborough.”
“What an absolute disgrace, people have no respect for the area they live in.”
It came on the day the Environment Agency issued a flood alert for Loughborough’s urban watercourses, including Wood Brook.
The agency said yesterday (June 25): “Flooding is possible for Black Brook, Wood Brook, Burleigh Brook, Grace Dieu Brook and other urban watercourses in Loughborough."
Labour’s environment spokesman on Leicestershire County Council and representative for North West Loughborough, Cllr Max Hunt, said: “In June we have experienced the heaviest rainfall for many years.
“The area of Loughborough around the town centre is flagged up as an area of potential high risk from flooding, largely because it it low lying.
“There are several brooks, of which this is one, which feed into the canal and River Soar. It is an area we have a watch on as a district and county council.”
He added: “There has been considerable rainfall which is visible by flooding in Queen's Park, parts of which are under water.
“It was also the weekend when students left Loughborough and all sorts of rubbish have been left over the roads in certain areas of the town, some of which are not far from Lisle Street.
“If that got into the brook it would cause problems with the considerable amount of rubbish lying in the streets from the student exodus.”
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An Environment Agency spokeswoman said: “Our field teams are currently out in the Loughborough area clearing grids to prepare for the possibility of heavy rainfall.
“The Wood Brook on Lisle Street will be visited by our officers as part of our regular patrols.”
In a later statement, the agency added: “The plastic debris can't be cleared at present because there are access issues and no barriers present for operational safety, but the grid has been cleared to ensure flood resilience during the current unsettled weather.”
