Wheelyboat Picks the Litter

Liz Nicholls

river thames

WOW-one crew stand proudly over their spoils of the Littler Pick

WOW! Wallingford Accessible Boat Club heroes support the Thames river clean-up with WOW-one wheelyboat

We thought we would share some heart-warming community news to add some light to what has been a very gloomy week for most.

Members of the Wallingford Accessible Boat Club (WABC), with their wheelyboat WOW-one, helped out with the Thames Clean Up in Wallingford today.  Bankside litter pickers, co-ordinated by local councillors and actively supported by the charity Wallingford 1155, passed the rubbish bags and other debris to the wheelyboat for ferrying downstream to the main collection point at Riverside in Wallingford.

WOW-one proved to be the ideal craft for the job. Its flat decking, designed for carrying wheelchair users, coupled with its shallow draft allowed it to get very close to the bank making it easy to load the rubbish.

Just some of the debris collected by WOW-one during the Litter Pick

Councillor Steve Holder, lead coordinator of the litter pick, said:  “Another great litter pick thanks to the 80 or so local people who turned out to help. We were very pleased to have the support of WABC and WOW-one which was invaluable for the river element of the Litter Pick which coincided with the wider South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse River Thames Clean Up event. It is great they were involved in this important community initiative.”

John Jenkins MBE, WABC chairman of Trustees, added: “The litter pick was all great fun and I am very glad that our involvement proved to be so helpful. After all, our wheelyboat operation is itself a community project and we are always keen to get involved to support local Wallingford initiatives such as this.”

For further information please contact John Jenkins on [email protected] or phone 07976 297835.

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Get ready for Readipop

Karen Neville

river thames

The friendly music festival is back in Caversham with another great line-up

Reading’s friendly homegrown music and arts festival is back at Christchurch Meadows from 12th to 14th July.

And this year Readipop Festival is set to host the biggest line-up yet including headliners the Brand New Heavies, Sleeper and The Orb.

Reggae chart toppers Musical Youth and 80s Indie group The Primitives also feature alongside Fuzzbox, Mark Chadwick from The Levellers and Mark Morriss of The Bluetones.

Grammy nominees are set to rub shoulders beside artists behind almost 80 top 40 UK hits, Radio 1 and 6Music staples as well as a huge range of local Reading acts.

In addition to the music, there’ll be circus performances from Aim to Fly UK and workshops, an Indie market courtesy of Etsy and Thames Rivercruise boat trips to enjoy as well as much more.

All profit from the festival goes to help Readipop’s charity music projects in the area.

Readipop works to make a positive difference to people’s lives by developing creativity and developing communities. Their work often includes reaching out to socially excluded people and emerging artists.

The charity, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, offers a variety of projects for young people including sessions with experienced mentors, intensive week-long courses for NEETs and a range of workshops. It also offers programmes in primary and secondary schools as well as projects for adults and older people such as community bands, choirs and bands for retired people and concerts in care homes.

Weekend tickets for Readipop Festival are £40, with day tickets from £18 to £23 available until 30th June (under 14s free with adults).

Find out more

For more information and to get tickets visit the Readipop website