Aire Rivers Trust seeks helpers for Bradford Beck clean-up (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting TANEWS to 80360, or email
Aire Rivers Trust seeks helpers for Bradford Beck clean-up
11:00am Monday 21st May 2012 in News
David Lerner and Michael Canning, of the Aire Rivers Trust, at Bradford Beck
Ecologists are appealing for help to revitalise Bradford Beck, which they say could provide social, economic and environmental benefits to the city.
The Aire Rivers Trust has been tasked by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to devise a management plan for improving the 11km waterway, which runs above ground along Canal Road, and is appealing for community groups, stakeholders and individuals to get involved.
The charity is also seeking volunteers to help boost the water quality of the beck, which has improved since the decline of heavy industry in the city.
A water sampling training event will be held on Thursday, June 14, at Bradford University, where participants will learn how to collect water samples for academic analysis.
Volunteers will be given sections of the river from which to take regular samples until February next year, to monitor contamination levels.
Bradford Beck project officer Michael Canning said improving the river would result in a range of benefits for people living in the surrounding area.
He said: “Everyone gets pleasure from a river. It’s a place to walk or sit, to look at and admire, to play, to see wildlife, as well as a place to listen to nature and contemplate.
“Healthy rivers work for us. They reduce flooding, provide clean water, increase wildlife and biodiversity and reduce pollution. Good waterside settings attract good businesses and jobs and increase property and values.”
Professor David Lerner, of the Aire Rivers Trust, said work needed to be carried out so Bradford Beck could be enjoyed by people in the city.
He said: “Canal Road is a major redevelopment area. Here’s a fantastic opportunity to create a wonderful riverside park, but most people wouldn’t even know there’s a river here.”
For more information about the event in June, which starts at 1pm, email michael.canning@aireriverstrust.org
Comments(11)
flashdonut
says...
12:30pm Mon 21 May 12
Albion.
says...
1:26pm Mon 21 May 12
flashdonut wrote:A beck that runs up hill? How unusual.
Is this project limited to Canal Rd? What about the BFD beck that runs to Thornton?
BradfordBeckFriend
says...
1:39pm Mon 21 May 12
flashdonut wrote:The project is for the whole of the Bradford Beck and its tributaries. Includes the nearly natural streams around Clayton and Thornton, and the heavily modified ones in and below the city.
Is this project limited to Canal Rd? What about the BFD beck that runs to Thornton?
flashdonut
says...
1:53pm Mon 21 May 12
Albion. wrote:Suppose I asked for that.
flashdonut wrote:A beck that runs up hill? How unusual.
Is this project limited to Canal Rd? What about the BFD beck that runs to Thornton?
still got a pulse
says...
2:14pm Mon 21 May 12
flashdonut wrote:Well everything else in Bradford is an up hill struggle! I would suggest first of all that the sewers should be sorted out to stop them leaking into the beck, then get down to getting their hands dirty.
Albion. wrote:Suppose I asked for that.
flashdonut wrote:A beck that runs up hill? How unusual.
Is this project limited to Canal Rd? What about the BFD beck that runs to Thornton?
BradfordBeckFriend
says...
2:21pm Mon 21 May 12
craftykhan
says...
5:05pm Mon 21 May 12
Willard
says...
6:54pm Mon 21 May 12
JAtkinson
says...
9:19pm Mon 21 May 12
flashdonut
says...
10:33am Tue 22 May 12
Willard wrote:That was nothing. In Jackie Beck we used to see Toads as big as pigs. With red eyes and horns.
There used to be rats as big as cats that used to run up and down the stretch just behing the Odeon in Thornton Road. Some of the lads down there used to shoot at em with ballbearings. It used to stink in the heat of summer.
a reasonable sort of chap says...
11:57am Mon 21 May 12