OVER 80 volunteers from BeachCare, the National Trust, Polzeath Marine Community Group and Sharp’s Brewery turned out to take part in a ‘Mega Beach Clean’ of Polzeath beach and the surrounding area recently.

Braving the strong winds, people of all ages utilised the equipment provided by BeachCare and spent over two hours scouring the beach for litter.

BeachCare officer, Neil Hembrow, said: “So far this year, over 2,000 volunteers have removed 13-tonnes of litter, including 2,500 plastic bottles from Cornish beaches and the team on Saturday at Polzeath did an exceptional job.

“Thanks so much to everyone who turned out and helped with this ongoing task.”

Throughout 2017, BeachCare has been offering its regular cleans but can also provide dynamic, beach cleaning skills for bigger jobs to coastal communities across the South West in collaboration with the Sharp’s Beach Battalion.

The Beach Battalion is a new collaborative programme between the Army’s ‘Outreach Team South West’ and Sharp’s Brewery as an extension of the brewery’s support for the Blue Flag and Seaside Awards.

Neil added: “We’re always delighted to have so many volunteers turn out for our regular cleans, however we’re also keen to hear from beaches and community projects across Devon and Cornwall who might need the extra help of us and/or the Sharp’s Beach Battalion. We are able to call on the Beach Battalion twice a month to get some especially tricky or heavy jobs done. We’re keen that people don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll continue this work right throughout the autumn and winter. We have more Blue Flag and Seaside Awards beach cleans coming up and we’d love to see as many people as possible joining us for these.”

Senior brand manager at Sharp’s Brewery, James Nicholls, said: “With Sharp’s Brewery being based in Rock, North Cornwall, the coastline and our beaches are deeply important to us and we’re always keen to help wherever we possibly can. Polzeath is our local Blue Flag beach so it was great to see some of our team down there joining the efforts.”