Pipeline workers have helped to remove unsightly plastic from a Suffolk beauty spot. 

The plastic – hundreds of plastic guards from trees and shrubs – was collected as part of a project called Free the Trees, organised by the team who look after the Dedham Vale AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). 

Staff helping to build a new water main network, which passes through Suffolk, joined AONB staff at Assington Mill, a nature reserve near Assington near Sudbury.  

The new water main network - hundreds of kilometres of underground, interconnecting pipelines – stretching from North Lincolnshire to Suffolk and Essex – will move water from wetter to drier areas. It is being built by the Strategic Pipeline Alliance, a partnership of five companies including Anglian Water.  

Kate Wagg, part of the environmental team for the new water main network, said: “Our commitment to leaving a long-lasting green and social legacy is as important as the pipe and pumps we’re building, which is why we’re keen to support initiatives like Free the Trees.  

“We saw young trees bursting out of plastic tubes and the team was able to fill two, one-ton bags in just a single day.” 

The guards help protect saplings when they are vulnerable but, once the trees outgrow them, they become a nuisance. The plastic takes many years to degrade, and toxins are washed into the soil and eventually waterways.  
 

A planning application for a 68km section of the new water main network – the most southern, which will link Bury St Edmunds to Colchester and Ipswich – was submitted in December. Work on a separate 34km section of the new water main network in Lincolnshire is almost complete.  

Elsewhere, the water company has donated 2,000 books to 11 primary schools along the pipeline route, built special 'commuter' fences to help bats, joined forces with Toadwatch to protect under-threat amphibians, donated a life-saving defibrillator and planted 2,000 trees.