Volunteers wade into Ellesmere Mere to clear bucket-loads of litter — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Lee Fraser, Ellesmere's park ranger, led volunteers into The Mere after hot, dry summer weather dropped water levels enough to expose debris that is normally hidden beneath the surface
- The team collected 'five big bucket loads' of litter — including bricks, pottery, and mobile phones — that Fraser said covered half the length of the town's promenade
- Fraser said the group switched from a boat-based approach last year to standing in the water this year because visibility is dramatically better at the lower level, with bricks that look obvious from the bank 'disappearing' once you are next to them
- Fraser warned The Mere's water level will take 'quite a while' to recover even after recent heavy rains, because of the lake's large surface area
- Wendy Salter, a three-year volunteer and local resident, said the rubbish 'comes from such a big area' and varies widely — she personally found a mobile phone the previous week
- The 2025 summer has been reported as the hottest and one of the driest on record, with lakes and rivers across the UK running low.
Why it matters: Volunteers have removed roughly five bucket-loads of debris from a single lake promenade in under an hour of wading, suggesting that prolonged UK droughts are creating short windows for communities to clean decades of accumulated hidden waste — work that is essentially impossible when the lake is at normal depth.
Ask SkimNews
