THE cold weather and January blues couldn’t keep people away from Trebarwith to take part in the Love Trebarwith beach clean recently.

The Love Trebarwith Beach Clean Group, which has been set up for over a month now, donned coats, hats, scarves and gloves with their litter pick sticks to tackle the rubbish scattered across the beach at Trebarwith Strand on Saturday, January 6.

Around 30 people turned out for the first beach clean of the New Year, with plenty more in the pipeline for the group and others wishing to get involved. Organiser, Bek Stratfield, was pleased with how the clean went. She told the Post: “It was really good. Around 30 people came along and there seems to be more people joining the Facebook group to get involved. There were loads of kids as well — and they’re the ones we’re aiming at, so that’s great.”

The event started at 1.30pm and the cleans normally take as long as an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the tides and conditions. Bek continued: “Trebarwith is pretty tidal, so all of our cleans have to work around that. The swell on that day in particular was really big, so we couldn’t access as much of the beach as we had hoped.”

The Love Trebarwith group has kept itself under the radar since Bek first set up the group with some friends, but was pleased to see the number of people turning out for the beach clean, signalling the importance of the local marine environment to the community. The group is part of Keep Britain Tidy’s Beach Care scheme, under the manager for the South West Neil Hembrow’s guidance. As part of this initiative, Bek must complete a risk assessment and state that all participants are responsible for themselves.

She said: “We had a beach clean on December 23, and managed to get six bin bags full of rubbish. On January 6, even though we couldn’t access much of the beach because of the conditions, we still managed to pick up half a dozen big bagfuls, mainly consisting of rope, net, things like that.”

Having heard about the government’s recent decision to ban microbeads from being manufactured in products such as shower and bath items, with the ban on microbead products in retail outlets hoping to come later in the year, Bek thinks this is a positive way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis.

Microbeads are miniscule pieces of plastic that are often found in every day soaps and shower gels, which are then sent through the sewers and are unable to be filtered, ending up in the ocean. Fish eat the microbeads, which is then fed into the human food chain.

Bek said: “A lot of stuff gets washed up — most of it is from fishing boats, and then you get lots of plastic bottles too, which then get broken up.”

The recent stormy weather hasn’t helped things either. “Again, Trebarwith is a bit of a funny one, because you’re just not able to access the whole beach,” Bek continued. “At first looks, it doesn’t seem so bad, but when you have a walk round, there’s actually quite a lot. It falls on the direction of the wind a lot as well. We’re always picking stuff up.”

Bek and some friends began picking up litter scattered around the coastal area after her son, Finnian Layland-Stratfield, was first reported missing around the Tintagel area. Having searched the area continuously, they gathered rubbish and litter up as they went, sparking an idea to set up a community beach clean group to make it an ongoing initiative. Bek said: “It’s good timing really because of Blue Planet, which showed how a lot of plastic and litter during the winter is affecting the marine life. People are really on it, which is really good to see.”

There are many similar organisations in the Bude area, which Bek hopes will be connected with the Love Trebarwith Beach Clean Group in times to come.

“Gradually, we want to start connecting up over the beaches, and the plan is to start covering Tregardock beach — perhaps do three or four cleans a year.”

The next Love Trebarwith beach clean will be held on Saturday, February 3, from 1pm. Join the Facebook group, Love Trebarwith Beach Clean Group, for updates and information on how to get involved.