by Cllr Ian Shires on 12 November, 2019

Went out this morning to see first-hand the progress being made by the Canal and River Trust workers and volunteers on clearing the Floating Pennywort off the surface of the canal in Holly Bank Basin.

The weather was absolutely foul, cold wind and driving fine rain, but it didn’t stop the team of workers and volunteers getting stuck into the job at hand. Have to say the extent of the invasion of Floating Pennywort was worse than anyone thought. There was a deep mat of the stuff clogging up the end of the Basin and getting it off the canal was proving a difficult task.

There’s a new guy heading up the work in our area. Have to say he was on to this very soon after my first contact with him and he’s been as good as his word which bodes well for the future.

Floating Pennywort causes a range of problems including changing the availability of oxygen in the water, threatening fish and invertebrates, choking drainage systems and crowding our native water plants. It was banned from sale in 2014. When you see the state of Holly Bank Basin you can understand why.

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