Thousands of tyres are cleared from estuary beauty spot

Glamorgan Star news 30/08/2023

3 minutes read

Some of the tyres taken out of the river.

A MASSIVE community clean-up has taken place on the Ogmore River this week, to tackle waste left in the waters close to the estuary at Ogmore-By-Sea.

The event, which saw hundreds of residents and businesses turn up to lend a hand, was organised after locals said thousands of tyres and piles of rubble could be seen trapped at the local beauty spot.

With the help of a number of diggers and tractors, volunteers managed to drag almost 2,000 tyres out of the waters, along with old trolleys, bikes and waste metal on the day.

Alun lives in Bridgend and was an organiser of the event, and put it together after regularly seeing junk floating down the river while he was walking his dog.

He said: “I walk the dog down here on a regular basis and I always see the tyres and trolleys in the river and it’s such a shame. We decided something had to be done so we had a big community push to get them out.

“Obviously a lot of work went in to setting it all up, with planning, phone calls and emails, but I was happy to do it because of what’s happening today. I think there’s over 1,500 tyres that we’ve dragged out which is absolutely fantastic – along with a good number of trolleys as well.

“We have also seen a fridge and a number of gas cannisters brought up, and while we’re not sure exactly how they got in there, we are just focusing on what we can do to help the situation and get them out.

“Lots of local people have turned up, as well as people who have travelled nationally to be here. There were also a number of businesses and groups, including the Cardiff Rivers group, Natural Resources Wales, Trolley Wise, and Keep Wales Tidy who gave me a massive amount of support to get this set up.”

Bridgend councillor John Spanswick was in attendance and said: “It’s amazing to see so many people and businesses here to clean up the litter and rubbish which has been washed down here over the years. Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) will now take it back to the recycling centre to sort out.

“I don’t think we appreciate our environment and natural beauty enough sometimes, but to see how much it means to people, and to see how much better the river will be afterwards makes it all worthwhile.”

**| Lindy Hutchinson (left), June Price and Angharad Brown from Merthyr Mawr WI.**

Local volunteers Lindy Hutchinson, June Price and Angharad Brown are part of the Women’s Institute in Merthyr Mawr and said that while they weren’t in the river themselves, they came to support others by providing hot drinks and cakes.

Angharad said: “Our resolution this year for the Women’s Institute is clean rivers for wildlife and people, so we thought it would be very relevant for us to come and help in Ogmore.

“As locals, we want to have the area clean for people to use, especially as this is a problem with tyres that has been ongoing for years. People have said there are so many here as a result of fly-tipping, although in some cases people use tyres in retaining structures by the river which get washed away during storms.

“Either way we were more than happy to come down and do our part to help keep the community clean, and if it becomes a regular thing, we will be happy to be involved.”