Volunteer's plea as beach litter left behind

Visitors to a beach left behind "the worst" litter local residents said they had seen over the bank holiday weekend.

Paul Granger said rubbish left on Seaton Carew beach, near Hartlepool, had become an increasing problem during the school holidays and following the recent spell of hot weather.

He said it was "an absolute mess", with rubbish strewn over the beach and council bins overflowing, and called on people to treat the beach "with respect".

It is as Cleveland Police unveiled an anti-social behaviour (ASB) action plan for the region, saying it was "top of our list of priorities because it's top of the list of priorities for local people".

Granger said he regularly picked up glass bottles from the beach because of the danger they posed to children, dogs and horses but on Tuesday morning he collected 44.

Visitors had also left disposable barbecues, towels, shoes, coats and buckets and spades, he said.

He collected several bags full of rubbish, with other local residents doing the same.

He visits the beach to walk his dog every morning and said there was always a carrier bag there people could fill with rubbish.

"It's heartbreaking because you want the beach to be a tourist attraction but first impressions are going to put people off," he said.

He recalled another occasion where families had abandoned rubbish, including a nappy, after a day on the beach.

"You'd be the first to moan if you came to bring your kids to the beach and there's a nappy there," he said. "What's that teaching the kids?"

Granger said the beach was not just for people to enjoy and visitors needed to consider wildlife too.

"You've got the little terns here at the moment. They've come thousands of miles to come to Seaton, you know what I mean?

"Further along the dunes, you've got the sand martins, you get sometimes dolphins. I've even seen a couple of whales."

Granger praised council workers who were cleaning the beach and dunes, saying they had "reacted" to the scale of the problem.

But he urged visitors to take more responsibility for their waste.

"If you can be bothered to bring it down, just be bothered to take it home," he said. "Treat it with a bit of respect."

Cleveland's Labour Police and Crime Commissioner Matt Storey said their most recent survey indicated 40% of people thought tackling ASB was the top thing they wanted the force to do.

"I've met with lots of victims of anti-social behaviour, some of whom feel like prisoners in their own home," Storey said.

The force announced a plan which included high visibility patrols, increasing immediate consequences to deter ASB like nuisance off-road bikes, "strong victim care" and prevention work.

Funding would be used from the Home Office's Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to deliver the action plan, Storey added.

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