Fifteen sackfuls of rubbish were collected from Burnham-On-Sea’s beach and the banks of the River Brue estuary during a community clean-up held on Saturday (September 24th).
The newly-formed Friends of Burnham-On-Sea Beach met for the first time, as pictured here, as part of an ongoing project to clean up the town’s beach.
The new group has been formed by Litter Free Coast and Sea Somerset, the campaign that’s overseeing Burnham’s attempt to improve the town’s sea water quality.
Burnham’s Coastal Officer Harriet Yates-Smith said: “We collected 15 bags of rubbish plus a tyre and loads of ear buds during the clean-up.”
“A big thank you goes to all the wonderful volunteers who came along.”
She added that the new group intends to meet every month to clean up the beach, going as far as Brean in the future to tidy the whole coastline.
Mark Hollidge, who is leading the group, also thanked those who had come along and told Burnham-On-Sea.com he hopes more will get involved in coming months as the Friends of Burnham Beach grows.
“We’re hoping that there will be a good turnout of local people who are keen to help keep our beach clean on a regular basis.”
A separate group, the Pooper Troopers, was also recently formed to clean up the seafront area, to encourage responsible dog ownership and prevent dog fouling along the beach and seafront.
It comes after Burnham’s sea water quality was given a ‘poor’ rating last 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 on Saturday
The clean-up collected this mound of rubbish from the beach and river banks
