Bridport: Mayor spearheads spring clean of town while volunteers sweep the beaches (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Bridport: Mayor spearheads spring clean of town while volunteers sweep the beaches

10:33am Wednesday 18th April 2012 in News

Bridport received a spring clean at the same time hundreds of volunteers undertook a clean sweep of our beaches.

Bridport mayor and mayoress Anne and Dave Rickard were joined by deputy Mayor Maggie Ray and council leader Martin Ray and volunteers to clear the town of rubbish.

Coun Rickard said it was a good turnout and after recycling what could be recycled there were four large sacks of rubbish less on the streets than before they started. He said: “We found the odd bicycle wheel and broken scooter and the inevitable tin of paint but the thing I noticed more than anything were crisp packets.

“I think the message is there was quite a bit of stuff that people could have recycled themselves.

“It is a bit depressing that there is so much rubbish and we have to go out and do this.

“If people just did it themselves it would be so much easier. Hopefully this will wake people up a little bit.”

Beach clean events took place along the shore from Lyme Regis to Studland, with hordes of volunteers armed with litter-pickers and rubbish bags.

Beach clean organiser Jenny Penney, of Dorset Countryside, said it had been an absolutely fantastic day.

She said: “Numbers are still coming in as to how many people got involved.

“Our volunteers have found the normal things like plastic and glass, but some of the odder finds have included half a fishing rod, a flick knife, a broken lobster pot and a fishing chair.”