Riverside grot-spot cleaned up by anglers in Kilnhurst

Anglers complained a burnt-out caravan had not been removed from land off Hooton Road in Kilnhurst despite pleas from the previous site leaseholder.

More rubbish had accumulated at the site since the abandoned caravan was torched two years ago leaving the site an eyesore.

But a group that has an arrangement to use the site has stepped in to make the area pristine again and collected up all the rubbish, which the Environment Agency has now removed.

Manvers Waterfront Boat Club members have negotiated an interim arrangement with the EA to use the site for canoeing and angling in exchange for clearing the litter up.

They have even removed scaffolding poles dumped in the River Don.

The EA was criticised by Martin Read, the Rotherham Advertiser’s fishing correspondent and chairman of the Kilnhurst and District Angling Alliance, which repeatedly pleaded with the organisation to clean up the site when it held the lease.

But Chris Hawkesworth, president of Manvers Boat Club, said his club’s volunteers had cleaned up the site, which was described as a “growing sore” because it was getting more and more untidy.

Mr Hawkesworth said that over recent months, club volunteers had been making improvements.

He said: “Our volunteers came with strimmers and bags to clean it all up. Our people keep going down there on a weekly basis to clean stuff up. We have a strong environmental ethos as a group.”

Mr Hawkesworth said the site was now “safer” and “less of an eyesore”.

Martin Read said that since the article appeared, the site has been cleared of the collected rubbish by the EA.

The EA confirmed that as the landowner it would clear up the rubbish, despite having failed to do over the previous two years.