THIS startling photograph of a swan stuck in a sea of rubbish was sent in by a disgusted Journal reader this week.
Vidmantas Dusevicius, of Springfield Road, Grantham, was walking along Grantham Canal near Earlesfield Lane when he spotted the swan seemingly trapped in the waste.
He was walking along the canal with his son when he saw the swan.
He said: “There was too much rubbish and the swan was stuck and could not get out.
“When I got near to the swan it looked like it had tears in its eyes. It couldn’t do anything because of all that rubbish.”
Mr Dusevicius managed to scare the bird into moving away from the debris by clapping his hands.
He showed the Journal some photographs he had taken all along the canal of rubbish which had been dumped by fly-tippers.
Mr Dusevicius said: “I walked all along the canal and saw car tyres, a computer monitor, a baby’s buggy, beer bottles, road signs – all kinds of things dumped in the water.
“Swans are beautiful birds and if one of them dies it would be a tragedy.”
SKDC’s head of environmental services Mark Taylor said: “SKDC are responsible for this stretch of canal but we have had no reports until this week about the build-up of rubbish that has accumulated at the Earlesfield Lane end. Now we are aware of this problem we will be sending officers out to clear it.
“We would ask that any areas that are blighted by rubbish or fly-tipping are reported to our customer services team on 01476 406080 so we can clear them.”
Mr Dusevicius was so disgusted by what he saw he created a website to highlight the issue. To view the site log on to tinyurl.com/g-canal