DURING the third weekend in September the Evening Mail's Big Clean campaign rejoiced in the community spirit that was ignited by the Great British Beach Clean.
Groups of environmental crusaders across the county strove to make our beaches more beautiful for everybody.
Two groups were out in force on the Walney beaches. Volunteers from the Furness Waste Consortium and Cumbria Wildlife Trust met on the afternoon of Saturday September 17 to tidy up a 500m stretch of coastal National Nature Reserve.
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Steve Benn, senior reserve manager at Natural England's North Walney National Nature Reserve, led the team of volunteers. He said: "Our group spent the afternoon contributing to the Great British Beach Clean and we collected 143kg of litter that had been washed up onto the beautiful coastline.
"The usual commercial fishing nets and fishing hooks were removed from the beach. In addition we collected; party balloons, cotton buds, plastic bags, broken bottles, bits of torn plastic, bottle tops, plastic toys, various lengths of rope and a whole range of other household items."
The beach cleaners worked in accordance with another group, led by Amy Hopley of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust who had arranged extra beach cleans in honour of the Great British Beach Clean herself.
Mr Benn, who has been leading the beach cleans for several years now, said: "We have a very dedicated group of volunteers and this week being the Great British Beach Clean has definitely raised awareness, but we are always keen to find new volunteers to come along and help out.
"We run our beach cleans a lot more regularly once we get in to the Autumn and Winter months. Our familiar oystercatchers and ringed plovers breed at North Walney National Nature Reserve during the summer months and we don't want to disturb them, but now I want to get as many people back out on the beaches as possible.
"Our next clean up will be on Sunday September 25 and we would love to see some new faces there."
To get involved in the beach cleans please contact: gabrielle.rowley@nwemail.co.uk or check the dates for Mr Benn's upcoming beach cleans at www.lovemybeach.org.
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