AN INQUIRY set up to investigate ways to protect the River Itchen has heard first-hand from volunteers who clean it up.

The first meeting of the scrutiny inquiry, held on Thursday, heard from people involved in maintaining the river.

Among them was Rose Nicol, who runs Friends of Chessel Bay and heads its Respect the River campaign.

She told city councillors a ton of rubbish is removed every week.

Ms Nicol said: “Local people have been beavering away here for 20 years.

“Hard working volunteers give up their Saturdays to rid it of rubbish."

In the 2018 clean-up 500 plastic bottles were removed by the volunteers.

Plastic nurdles have repeatedly been found at the nature reserve.

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Chessel Bay, south of Northam Bridge, is one of the last remaining parts of the Itchen in the city that has its natural habitat maintained.

It is surrounded by industrial sites and developments that own their parts of the river.

Ms Nicols added: “The stakeholders are rightly the birds, bugs and creatures.

“Anything that’s anything comes into the bay from many thousands of plastic pellets to huge concrete-encased blocks and everything in between.”

The special Scrutiny Panel will meet once a month, for seven months, inviting organisations, such as charities and Southern Water, to try to work out a mutual way to protect the river.

A Southampton City Council report for the inquiry said the 28-mile River Itchen 'has been the lifeblood of Southampton since Roman and Saxon times'.

It is used by water sports clubs - including Southampton Water Activities Centre and Woodmill Activity Centre.

Several areas have special protection.

The report added: "The river is subject to use by numerous, and, at times competing interests that can create pressure on the natural environment and tensions between user groups.

"In addition, ownership and oversight of the river is complex and the responsibility of a number of different organisations."

The scrutiny inquiry will meet a further six times, covering subjects including water quality, houseboat residents, and flood risks.