Tonnes of rubbish removed from beaches

DISCARDED crisp packets, pieces of fishing net and plastic bottles were among the tonnes of litter removed from beaches around Norfolk and Suffolk last year.

As the region prepares for what looks set to be a bumper UK holiday season, new figures have shown that volunteers removed three tonnes of rubbish from beaches in Suffolk on just a few days last year and more than 60 tonnes of litter was cleared up from beaches and promenades in north Norfolk.

North Norfolk District Council has staff keeping beaches in Cromer, Sheringham, Mundesley, Sea Palling, Overstrand and East and West Runton clean every day from March to September.

Between spring 2008 and 2009, the council's team cleared 61.3 tonnes of beach waste, including rubbish from promenade bins, and 11 tonnes has already been cleared up in April and May this year.

No specific figures for other beaches in Norfolk have been made available, but statistics for the South East of England show that 118,009 items were collected from 114 beaches last year, of which 41.5pc was public waste, including plastic bottles and sweet and crisp packets.

Lowestoft's Blue Flag beach is cleaned twice daily during the summer, as is the beach further down the coast in Southwold. Gunton and Kessingland beaches are cleaned monthly in the winter and once a week in the peak season.

Mike Daniels, Waveney Norse's cleansing service manager, said: “All our areas are cleaned to blue flag standards by our trained staff, as we realise the importance to the area regarding the tourism aspects and tailor our cleansing frequencies and resources to this.”

A spokesman for Yarmouth Borough Council's services team, GYB services, said that seasonal staff clean the beaches in Yarmouth and Gorleston daily in the summer.

In the west of the county, Hunstanton's main bathing beach has just been awarded a prestigious Quality Coast Award for the second time, praising the resort's work on water quality, littering, visitor facilities and beach safety.