Nineteen 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 (November 26th).
The newly-formed Friends of Burnham-On-Sea Beach met next to the town’s Sailing Club pontoons as part of an ongoing project to clean up the town’s beach.
The group was 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 19 bags of rubbish during the clean-up – mainly small bits of broken down plastic.”
“There were also two tyres – one of which was a tractor type – and also two pumpkins, a t-shirt, lots of plastic cotton bud sticks, a bucket and a fish crate.”
“Sedgemoor District Council came to collect all the rubbish at the end of the clean-up and we left the banks of the Brue looking wonderful.”
“A big thank you goes to all the wonderful volunteers who came along.”
The group intends to meet regularlyu 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.
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 in the latest water quality survey, but with signs of improvement. It follows stricter new EU bathing water quality standards coming into force earlier in the year.
Work is also underway by Wessex Water, Sedgemoor District Council and the Environment Agency to address the sea water quality.
