Call for action after Scarborough's South Bay is strewn with litter following the sunny weekend

A Scarborough Lifeboat crew member and surfer is calling for stricter measures to be put in place to tackle littering after the town's South Bay beach was left strewn with rubbish this weekend.
Some of the litter left behind in Scarborough this weekend.Some of the litter left behind in Scarborough this weekend.
Some of the litter left behind in Scarborough this weekend.

After returning from a call-out on Sunday evening, Carl Walsh noticed the beach was covered in an "unbelievable" amount of litter, including chip cartons, nappies, glass beer bottles and plastic beach toys, which had been left behind by visitors taking advantage of the hot weather,

Mr Walsh has raised the issue with Scarborough Borough Council and has called for the authority to "start enforcing the law", by handing out fines to people caught littering.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: "I spend a lot of time down at the beach and always see rubbish about, but this weekend it was absolutely unbelievable.

Some of the litter left behind in Scarborough this weekend.Some of the litter left behind in Scarborough this weekend.
Some of the litter left behind in Scarborough this weekend.

"Some people bothered to put it in a bag but then just left it on the beach and a lot of the litter was just a few feet away from the bins. It was high tide last night so goodness knows how much of that rubbish has been taken out to sea.

"It needs sorting out. I have raised this before and the council put more bins out and put some signs up warning about the effects on wildlife, but obviously this hasn't been effective.

"I think what the council needs to do now is start enforcing the law. If you park your car on double yellow lines you are going to get a parking ticket, if you are walking down the street and you chuck rubbish everywhere, it's pretty likely nothing is going to happen at all."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Senior Councillor David Jeffels, former Mayor of Scarborough and an honorary member of the British Resorts Association, said that although the council had the power to impose fines, it could send out the wrong message to the millions of holidaymakers that visit the Yorkshire Coast.

Some of the litter left behind in Scarborough this weekend.Some of the litter left behind in Scarborough this weekend.
Some of the litter left behind in Scarborough this weekend.

He said: "There needs to be better education, in particular families need to be encouraged to use the bins. I'm quite certain that if new bins were introduced that were more colourful or in the shape of a cartoon character, for example, it would be a far more effective way of tackling the problem than being heavy handed with fines."

"Naturally we want to keep our beaches clean in Scarborough and we have an excellent reputation for doing so as they are cleaned every morning."

Mr Walsh has posted pictures of the litter on Facebook and the post has been shared more than 1,700 times and has attracted hundreds of comments.