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.