As we’ve mentioned many times before, it’s volunteers who care about their communities that make a difference. We’d like to give a big shout out to the Southend BeachCare Group who put in a lot of graft to help keep the beaches along the shore at Southend clean:) These are the thoughts of one of their volunteers after a particularly busy weekend…

This is from the Southend BeachCare Group Facebook page

I did it! Got down to the Lagoon this evening-shocking! Spent two hours cleaning and talking to people who had travelled from London to spend a day on the beach and said would never come here again because of the litter. People were disgusted, families had brought their own rubbish bags with them and were stunned when other families simply just got up and left their towels and rubbish on the beach. I picked up so many buckets and spades that people bought and just left on the beach, plus nappies, beach shoes. Wet wipes galore all on the beach and within the rocks on the lagoon – which is a breeding ground for litter – picked up so many plastic bottles shoved into these rocks. Thank you to the children who joined with me to pick up litter and acknowledge that it can end up in the bellies of whales. Southend-on-Sea Borough Council you really need to work on this. Day Trippers are appalled with this beach. I collected 2 bags of rubbish and 1 recycling, took spades and buckets for my beach borrowing box and reclaimed a lovely beach towel! Thank you to Sands for my glass of wine when I had finished – much appreciated. So the outcome was bins on this beach, signage to engage people and beach cleaning and engagement by contractors.