Olympic medallist rower joins in river clean-up

Sam Redgrave joined teams clearing up the River Lambourn near Newbury

An Olympic rower has helped volunteers with an effort to clean up a local river.

Sam Redgrave, who won a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, said it was "inspiring" to see the work being done at the River Lambourn, just outside Newbury, Berkshire.

Ms Redgrave and the other volunteers cleared rubbish including bottles, footballs and vapes from the river, which is one of 200 of the world's ecologically-important chalk streams.

The event was part of the Big River Watch, where people are encouraged to log the condition of their local rivers on an app.

Ms Redgrave said she wanted to help because "rivers are very important to me".

"It makes me feel quite sad that there's still so much litter that we're picking up," she said.

"In this day and age, where everyone's a lot more educated, it should be common sense not to throw away things in the river."

Anna Forbes said having Ms Redgrave helping them out helped raise awareness of their work

Anna Forbes, senior project officer at Action for the River Kennet, said the river was affected by sewage and runoff pollution as well as litter.

"Over the winter, the very wet winter, it's had months and months of untreated sewage go into it," she said.

She said the Big River Watch helped them to understand how to look after the river, as well as being an opportunity for people to "connect" to water courses near them.

And she said having Ms Redgrave helping them out would help raise awareness of their work.

"Having Sam out, highlighting how important it is to look after rivers... is a great profile raiser for rivers and how important it is that we look after them," she said.

A Thames Water spokesperson said sewage discharges were "unacceptable" but that sewage systems were "historically designed to work in this way, to prevent sewage backing up into people’s homes".

They added farming, industry, road runoff, wildlife and increasingly extreme weather also played a role in river health.

"Thames Water has a clear and achievable plan to upgrade 250 of our facilities across the region to ensure we play our part," they said.