Volunteers are being sought to join a community clean-up of Burnham-On-Sea’s beach and the banks of the River Brue estuary on Saturday (November 26th).
The recently-formed Friends of Burnham-On-Sea Beach, pictured here, will hold the event from 10am-12 noon as part of an ongoing project to clean up the town’s beach.
The group was formed earlier this year by Litter Free Coast and Sea Somerset, the campaign that’s overseeing Burnham’s attempt to improve the town’s sea water quality.
Harriet Yates-Smith, Litter Free Coast and Sea Somerset Project Co-ordinator, said: “At the last beach clean in September the brilliant volunteers of the Friends of Burnham Beach collected 15 bags of rubbish, a tyre and a fish crate from the mouth of the River Brue.”
“This month we’re going back for more. Not only did the group find lots of plastic, they also found hundreds of cotton bud sticks. You may ask how cotton bud sticks that we use at home are finding their way into our rivers? The answer is people are flushing them down the toilet when they should be going in the bin.”
“The sticks are so small that they don’t get caught in the screens at the sewage treatment plant, they travel straight through the system and on to our beaches. As they are made of plastic they don’t break down which means they can last in our marine environment for hundreds of years, littering our beaches and threatening marine life. Love your loo and only flush pee, poo and paper – everything else should go in the bin.”
The next Friends of Burnham Beach Clean is this Saturday 26th November and everyone is invited. It will be held from 10am-12 noon at the mouth of the River Brue. The meeting place will be outside Burnham-On-Sea Sailing Club on The South Esplanade, TA8 1DL
Equipment will be provided. Anyone under the age of 18 has to be accompanied by an adult. Please wear appropriate footwear (wellies or sturdy shoes) and suitable clothing for the day.
It comes after Burnham’s sea water quality was given a ‘poor’ rating in November after stricter new EU bathing water quality standards came into force.
Whilst the quality of the seawater is no worse than it has been in the past, it was clear that more needed to be done to involve the local community in finding a solution, alongside the work already underway by Wessex Water, Sedgemoor District Council and the Environment Agency.
The group’s clean-up underway on Burnham beach at the previous clean
