Healthy Rivers Trust and Mersey Basin Rivers Trust are given green light for a merger to form Mersey Rivers Trust.

Two well-known local river charities, Healthy Rivers Trust and the Mersey Basin Rivers Trust, have been given the green light to launch a new rivers trust, to be formally known as Mersey Rivers Trust. Working as one, the new trust will operate in Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Liverpool City region, focussing on cleaning up the River Mersey and its tributaries, including the Rivers Irwell, Goyt, Bollin and Alt. Paul Henbrey, Director of Healthy Rivers Trust, said:

“The clean-up challenge in the Mersey corridor is huge and presents many opportunities for collaboration and partnership working. By combining the skills and resources of both trusts, we can have a greater impact on the health of our rivers.”

Going forward, Mersey Rivers Trust will continue to support the Catchment Based Approach, whilst strengthening its links with local communities and volunteers through the delivery of river clean-ups and its River Guardian volunteering programme. The trust will continue its awareness building campaign with Love my River – Call of Nature – which raises awareness on the impact of septic tanks, whilst continuing to deliver river walk overs to identify and report pollution sources. Paul added:

“We are really keen to work with regulators, industry and other partners to deliver more water quality improvements on the North West rivers and to help meet the challenges of the Water Framework Directive. The new trust will also help us strengthen our commitments on existing projects, such as the ten-year EU Life funded Natural Course project.”

To find out more about the new trust, visit http://merseybasin.org/ or http://www.healthywaterwaystrust.org.uk/