A campaign to fight what Brighton & Hove City Council calls a ‘culture of extreme littering’ on Brighton beach has been launched; withe dozens of banners around the seafront urging people to use litter bins or take rubbish home. It includes a giant 10m x 5m banner at the seafront conference centre.
This follows instances where revellers had left beaches carpeted with bottles, cans and litter. On one weekend last August the council had to clear 23 tonnes of litter, when sunny weather brought huge crowds to the seafront. Pictures of the mess made the news worldwide, raising fears the city’s image was being tarnished.
The recent hot spell has again seen a recurrence of the problem. Over the first weekend in July, the council collected 90 tonnes of rubbish from the beach and city streets over three days – equivalent to the weight of 20,000 deck chairs.
Chair of the council’s environment committee Councillor Pete West said: “The clear message is: ‘stop leaving your rubbish on the beach – it’s your responsibility to either put it in a bin or take it away. I don’t find any level of littering acceptable. But there seems to be a significant number of people with a culture of extreme littering. There’s an absence of any conscience about leaving piles of bottles, cans and packaging – and an assumption that someone else will collect it.
“We clear up very fast the next morning, but the pictures remain forever. That’s not good for our image as a tourism destination.”
Banners for the campaign depict cartoon superheroes and villains, portraying those who pollute the beach with rubbish as ‘litter losers’.
The council also deploys more bins and staff to cover busy summer days. Visit http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk
