Team want to return brook to 'its absolute best'

Volunteers are hoping to restore a seaside town's brook to its former glory by removing silt build-ups.

Piles of silt have gathered along the waterway in the centre of Dawlish in recent years with residents worrying tourists would no longer want to visit as a result as it made the Devon town look "shabby".

Waterways Around the Dawlish Environment (WADE) is working to clear the brook, which leads into the sea, with the aim of returning the area to "its absolute best".

The group has been given permission by the Environment Agency to carry out the work, although it must be done by hand and at certain times of the year.

The work being done by volunteers includes digging up and weeding out an island in the brook to help the water flow freely again.

WADE member David Force said a mix of storms and not enough water flowing had contributed to the silt build-up in the last couple of years.

He added the response to a call-out for volunteers to lend a hand had been good.

Force said: "We've got members of the community to come down with picks, shovels and spades and all there rest of it to get stuck in and clear as much of this as we can."

Among the volunteers turned out to help with the project included Judy Saunders, who used the brook's boating pond regularly as a child in the 1960s.

Saunders said: "Although I live in Exeter now, I wanted to come and help clear this to get it back to what it used to be like."

Force added: "Dawlish is winning, Dawlish is coming back.

"We're going to have a brilliant summer - the future looks good."

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