GLASS bottles, harmful substances and plastic are just some of the waste which is blighting a beauty spot on the Furness peninsula.

The amount of rubbish rotting on the sands and shingle of West Shore beach has incensed South Walney residents and raised concerns over the potential risk to local wildlife.

Anita Pettifar of Gatacre Street told the Evening Mail she was so ‘horrified’ by the sight she collected some of the waste herself, which included material marked hazardous to humans.

The rubbish pile appears to have accumulated over the course of one month. Just one month ago, the Evening Mail’s Big Clean campaign followed a group of volunteers, led by Cumbria Wildlife Trust's marine trainee Amy Hopley, as they collected litter from West Shore.

Mrs Pettifar, 49, who regularly walks her dogs and rides horses in the area, said: “I couldn’t believe the amount of rubbish washed up by the sea. I had never seen as much as I did that day and it made me very sad and angry.

“It wasn’t old fishing ropes, and it was not waste created by local people. This was coming in from what other people are dumping. There were old spray cans, glass jars and I just thought, where are all of these coming from?

“The label on the plastic container I picked up said that the contents were ‘harmful to touch’. Now this is in the sea and left polluting local beaches. When I picked it up, some of it poured onto my hand.

“This is having an environmental impact on the coastal wildlife, sea life and the people and pets who visit the beach and are unprotected.

“Is anyone else taking notice of what is being dumped just off our coast? Clean-ups aren’t getting to the root cause of the problem. Someone should be monitoring this.”

The risks of rubbish to eco-systems are well-documented. Marine life often mistake plastic rubbish for food. Sea birds are particularly vulnerable; a study last year found that 90 per cent of fulmars found dead around the North Sea had plastic in their stomachs.

North Walney councillor and Barrow mayor Anita Husband has promised to look into the issue, and urged members of the public to report any problems to Barrow Borough Council.

She said: “Natural England do a good job of keeping an eye on things down there, and there is a volunteer team who go down and clean it up, but I suppose in the winter months people don’t go as much.

“There are three of us councillors for North Walney so we’ll go down and take a look at it. If needed we can bring the StreetCare team in to sort things out.

“If anyone sees anything then they should come to the council and let us know so we can do something about it.”