Tonnes of litter picked off beach after weekend

Litter pickers gathered five tonnes of rubbish from one stretch of coastline after the bank holiday weekend despite additional bins being in place.

South Tyneside Council is calling on visitors to either take their litter home or use the extra bins which have been put out on the sand to cope with increased waste.

Many people on the beach in South Shields last weekend left waste behind which the council's Streetscene team said made their work much harder.

Council lead for neighbourhoods Karen Pittuck said the amount of litter left behind by some people is "completely unacceptable".

She said: "Our Streetscene teams worked incredibly hard across the weekend and into this week to keep our beaches clean, collecting around five tonnes of waste from bins and beach cleansing operations each day.

"This level of littering creates unnecessary pressure on our crews, delays cleaning work and detracts from the experience for other visitors."

Crews worked around the clock picking litter up off the ground as well as mechanically cleansing the beaches each day.

Additional bins have been put out by the local authority to prevent littering, including "beach baskets" which are placed on the sand.

Pittuck said: "We would urge all visitors to use the bins provided or take their litter home."

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