Tide of rubbish washing up on Yorkshire beaches

Although the region's shorelines are still among the cleanest in the country, pollution levels are still too high according to The Beachwatch '97 Survey - conducted by the Marine Conservation Society and the Reader's Digest.

Teams of volunteers combed 18 beaches in the north east, recording rubbish rises of over 50 per cent and helping to complete the national survey.

For the fourth year running, the study pinpointed tourists and daytrippers as the worst offenders, showering the nation's beaches with a total of 17,053 sweet wrappers, 8,064 drinks cans and 8,124 cigarette stubs.

Shipping debris accounted for 14.2 per cent of rubbish - including 29,010 plastic sheets, 1,153 oil containers and 21,159 lengths of rope, while sewage-related rubbish, including 16,467 cotton buds, was responsible for 8.5 per cent of washed-up waste.

But, while Yorkshire beaches at Flamborough, Spurn Point, Cayton Bay, Scarborough's North and South bays, Runswick Bay, Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay were subject to pollution increases, they were still among the cleanest in the country.

At Cayton Bay rubbish levels actually reached a four year high with 4.5 items discovered per metre, compared with a paltry 0.7 the year before.

Top of the study's shame list was Porthpean in Cornwall, with more than 50 items of litter discovered per metre of shoreline. At the other end of the scale - and only a few miles away, Cornwall's Sennen Cove was named as the cleanest, with less than one piece of rubbish per metre.

Among the more bizarre items found lying high and dry were glass eyes, fridges and fire extinguishers. On Yorkshire's coast beachcombing finds include a washing-up bowl, a traffic cone and a fish box from Denmark.

Samantha Pollard, conservation officer at the Marine Conservation Society, said: "We must start taking full responsibility for the correct disposal of waste."

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