Broadstairs Locals furious after increased litter at UK's most photographed beach
Some say the local authority's efforts to keep the beaches clean are ineffective, but Thanet District Council says it puts extra resources into beach management during the summer.
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00:00Broadstairs beaches are a popular spot for visitors from London, and while locals take
00:05pride in their coastline, they worry that not enough is being done to keep it clean.
00:10Now Thanet District Council do supply litter pickers, but residents say it's not enough.
00:15One group, Friends of Botany Bay, even fundraised so that volunteers can be paid a waged litter
00:20pick. This, combined with the poor parking and state of the toilets, mean that residents
00:26and tourists aren't best pleased.
00:29In the summer it's a daily occurrence. In fact, yesterday we spent £110 on wages just
00:33cleaning the beach, because Thanet Council wasn't here cleaning the beach. There were
00:37soiled nappies, human faeces littered all the way across here. It's not tolerable to
00:44leave it looking like that, because we've got local residents who use the beach as well.
00:48We want visitors to come here and have a great time, but the beach also is used by local
00:53residents. Their children are on school holidays as well. Their children want to go down to
00:57the beach and we want to make sure it's safe for them to do so.
00:59Botany Bay isn't the only beach suffering from this issue, with others including Margate
01:03Sands, Viking Bay, Palm Bay and Westgate. The council do fund litter pickers and enforcement
01:09officers to remind people of the public spaces protection orders in place, such as a ban
01:13on barbecues and littering. But locals claim they don't cover all the beaches, including
01:18Kingsgate and Whiteness.
01:20Thanet Council themselves said in a statement that they use a number of measures to keep
01:23their shorelines clean. These include placing more rubbish and recycling bins along the
01:28coastline and deploying additional cleaning teams. They also said that messages are shared
01:33on social media throughout the summer, encouraging people to put rubbish into the bins provided,
01:38recycle it or take it home with them if the bins are full.
01:41Some believe that the increase in litter is worsened by the lack of a proper car park,
01:45making it harder for waste collection services to access the bins. But local councillors
01:50believe it to be a lack of forward planning.
01:52We know when the good weather is going to arrive. It's forecast way in advance, that's
01:57why people plan to come down here. If we resolve to do it accordingly, we could then account
02:04for the additional litter and disturbance on the beach and manage that.
02:08And it's not just the residents. Tourists coming to visit the beach have also noticed
02:12the problem, though not all are aware of the extent of the issue.
02:15But the beach isn't cheap, right? There's not loads of litter, but the toilets are astronomical,
02:20they're just awful.
02:22People have been having a barbecue I think maybe a couple of nights ago, beer cans and
02:26what not, so not great.
02:28But the point is that someone should be cleaning it up because obviously it is going to be
02:31busy.
02:32A town litter pick has been organised for this weekend, but as the good weather continues,
02:36many locals fear the litter will become a repeating issue.
02:40Finn McDermott for KMTV in Broadstairs.