MEMBERS of WATCH, the environmental club for young people in the Forest of Dean, have been fishing in the river Wye – for rubbish!

And they caught it in plenty. A three hour paddle in canoes from the Forest Adventure Centre at Christchurch netted 10 binbags of rubbish.

The 14 children, aged from 6 to 14, were accompanied by six adults and in three hours cleaned up an area of the river from Kerne Bridge to Lower Lydbrook.

WATCH organiser Sharon Hockey said the clean-up had been a huge success.

"Waste gets washed down stream in the floods. It can be dangerous to wildlife. Everyone was surprised at just how much rubbish there was," she said.