A TEAM of volunteers is gathering to get a local ski slope ready for service.

The volunteers will be teaming up this weekend in order to clean and renovate the ski slope at Alpine Snowsports Southampton.

The slope has been shut recently because of the pandemic and is due to reopen on Saturday September 12.

Since closing however the slope has become very overgrown whilst no one has been there to maintain it, and has also been vandalised with the safety padding along the side pulled off and discarded.

The organiser of the group volunteering effort is Mike Barnes, who is a parents of one of the members of the ski team at the slope.

He has rallied round and found 20 volunteers, mostly made up of fellow parents and friends of the ski team, to come down to the ski slope and help get it ready to reopen.

Karen Platt, venue manager at Active Nation, the charity that runs Alpine Snowsports, said: “All the children are itching to get going again as they have been unable to train for nearly six months, so Mike has rallied round and got the volunteers together.

“I thought he would just get a few people, but he’s got 20 people coming down.

“The slope has been subject to vandalism and neglect and needs some hard work and loving care to bring it back to life.”

The volunteers are all bringing their own tools in order to maintain safety and social distancing whilst the work is taking place.

Karen added: “We don’t know how long it will take because you always tend to find things as you go along with this sort of job.

“But I would have thought 20 people for six hours is going to break the back of the work.”