gbp volunteering day at Birmingham canals

A group of gbp colleagues recently spent a day away from their desks to help out at the Canal & River Trust at their Birmingham base, not too far from gbp HQ in Edgbaston. gbp gives our staff four volunteering days a year, and we were pleased the team used one to return to the canals for a third time.

The canal towpaths are widely used by the public every day for walks and bike rides, and have a positive impact on the local community's mental and physical health. Our volunteering day involved clearing a section of the canal near Edgbaston Reservoir, focusing on trimming back vegetation, weeds and other overgrowth along the towpath on a couple of bridges. Taking turns to shovel, hoe, scoop, trim and sweep, our team of 10 helped clear the area for passers-by to enjoy a more pleasant view during their walks, jogs and bike rides along the canals.

Part of the group also travelled to The Mailbox retail and leisure complex for a special mission to clear some unsightly duckweed which had grown in the nearby canal. This special force scooped out the duckweed and litter using nets, managing to clear most of the area within just 90 minutes.

The team reported it was hard graft and quite warm on the day (a sign of the coming heatwave!), but equally very rewarding and worthwhile to see the improvements they made. A big thank you to Ben Richards from our gbp manage division for assembling our willing volunteers, and to Alex and Jordan from the Trust who looked after our team on the day.

With up to 100 miles of canals within the whole Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) system, it is a huge task for the Trust keep them maintained for the benefit of public and local wildlife, so we were pleased that gbp colleagues could offer some support.

A big thanks to our volunteers: Ben Richards, Ishleen Ghataore, Mariyam Zia, Jasdeep Virk, Usman Ahmed, Colin Pape, Divya Parmar, Richard Ford, Joan Tam and Ben Hale.