Join big beach clean in Winthorpe

About 10 eager volunteers armed with bags gathered on the beach near Xsite skate park on North Parade to tackle the rubbish left by walkers and washed up by the spring tides – and now they are hoping more people will join them this weekend.

The Saturday beach clean caused quite a stir on Facebook after the article in the Skegness Standard, in which organiser Paul Marshall applauded councillors at Little Haven beach in Pembrokeshire for launching a smoke-free scheme, arguing that children often begin smoking after seeing adults doing it in family-friendly places.

Mr Marshall, of Coastal Access for All who is organising a number of beach cleans on the run-up to Easter, thought it would be a waste of time to introduce the scheme in Skegness as it would be difficult to administer.

He said: “People thought I was calling for a smoking ban. We collected 120 cigarette stubs and, although we feel that the banning of smoking in Wales is a step in the right direction, we are worried that it would be very hard to police especially in this time of cut backs.

”Instead we would like people to think more about what they throw on the beach.”

On Saturday, all items of litter recovered were logged and will be entered onto the Marine conservation Societies Database. Mr Marshall said: “As usual a large proportion of litter was made up of plastic and, despite government intervention, a large proportion of this was supermarket bags. Plastic is choking our oceans and is of great concern.

“Animal faeces were also very high in the item list and, more concerning, was that much of this had been bagged by the dogs owners and then cast aside instead of being binned.

“Other areas of concern were broken glass, gas bottles, cord string and fishing line that can endanger birds and wildlife.”

Mr Marshall said he would like to thank all of the volunteers, including two new ones from Burgh le Marsh, who had read about the beach clean in the Skegness Standard.

Also there was Mandy Andrew of County Care independent living, who had taken along some service users.

She said: “Our service users do regular beach cleans most Thursday afternoons throughout the winter but we also like to support community events.

“It’s important that our beaches are clean for visitors.”

A number of local businesses are supporting the campaign, including Butlins, Bibbys, The Lookout, Kings Head, Taste, The View, The Beachcomber and The Links.

Seven local bars are donating meals which can be won by volunteers that turn up to help out.

The next beach clean at Winthorpe on Saturday, meeting outside the View Bar Restaurant at 10am.