LEADERS of an environmental campaign to protect the Forest’s waterways has praised the efforts of volunteers after completing a cleanup of the River Lyd last weekend.

Local group Friends of Forest Waterways (FOFW) hosted a clean up of the river in Lydney on Sunday (October 10).

The event, which was organised to remove litter and conduct research about the health of the river, was described as "a learning curve" by the organisers, who plan to carry out further events to rid the river of "so much" rubbish.

FOFW came into being in July this year with the aim of studying the condition of waterways throughout the Forest.

They have recently purchased water quality testing equipment and are looking to accumulate data to determine exactly what is needed to "correct the balance" and restore normality to local ecosystems.

Their work will initially focus on the River Lyd, Lydney Canal, Pidcock’s Canal and Lydney Harbour.

Their cleanup of the Lyd on Sunday was also featured on BBC Points West on Monday evening (October 11).

A post to the group’s Facebook page on Sunday night said: "We today would like to thank everybody who came along to our first clean up of the River Lyd.

"The reception we had from local people was very complimentary and the effort put in by all of the volunteers was absolutely brilliant, thank you all very much.

"Today was very much a learning curve, we have learnt a lot today and we will be outlying plans for what we need to do to maximise water flow and increase the look and attraction of the river.

"We will get there, the biggest problem we have is getting rid of so much rubbish, if anybody has any suggestions, please tell up."