VOLUNTEERS have helped get the coast ready for the summer at the annual Great Dorset Beach Clean.

The 27th annual event targeted 26 of the county's beaches - with more than 700 volunteers and 20 different organisations donating time to collect a total of almost 800 bags of litter from Lyme Regis to Friars Cliff in Christchurch.

This year's event marked the first beach clean to be co-ordinated by the Litter Free Coast and Sea Project, which is part of the Dorset Coast Forum.

Natalie Poulter, project co-ordinator said: "We’d like to give a huge vote of thanks to all the organisations who agreed to host a clean this weekend and, most importantly, to the hundreds of volunteers who gave up their time to help clean up Dorset’s beaches in time for the summer season.

"Beach cleans are an important way for us to understand what rubbish is being found on which beaches. In turn, this helps us to work out who we can work with to help stop more getting out there in the future. After all, if we don’t reduce the amount going into the sea, these clean ups will go on forever."

Ms Poulter added: "There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating and sinking their way around this planet’s oceans, and washing up on beaches.

"I’m thrilled that Dorset’s residents are passionate about protecting their part of the coast, and are willing to give up their time to make a dent in that figure."

Beaches were cleaned at Seatown, Burton Bradstock, Cogden, West Bexington, Lyme Regis, West Bay and Abbotsbury.

Litter collected will be processed by the Dorset Waste Partnership, which will be recycling the waste wherever possible to prevent it going to landfill. Plastic bottles from some beach cleans have also been donated to an exciting new project which will turn them into board shorts, creating something useable from something we think of as rubbish.

Ali Murrell from Riz Boardshorts, said: "It seems bonkers to me that we use something for less than five minutes and throw it away, when it can be turned into something useful, valuable, long-lasting and something which can be cherished.

"We think we can do better, and feel that Riz Boardshorts are a step in the right direction."