The Inaugral MCS/Rebearth/Friends of Lepe Beachclean & Litter Survey
If you woke up one beautifully sunny autumn day, how would you choose to spend it? Here at Rebearth we would not have to think for long, for us the obvious place is the beach. This time however, not to indulge our love of water sports but to inaugurate the first annual beach clean litter pick at Lepe beach in Hampshire. As part of our Earth Tax Rebearth Future Adventure & the Friends of Lepe have adopted Lepe Beach in association with the MCS Adopt a Beach scheme.
We met up with Lepe Country Park Staff, New Forest National Park staff, Friends of Lepe Country Park and an array of MCS volunteers and set out with litter pickers, gloves and bags to collect litter from the first half kilometre. After refreshments kindly supplied by Lepe Country park staff we arrived at the survey zone, where not a pebble or piece of seaweed was left unturned in our quest to find and remove as much litter as possible. Having trawled the survey zone we reconvened to sort, classify and record our findings ready to be submitted to and published in the MCS National Beach Clean 2008 litter survey (for details please visit the MCS website from the Rebearth links page).
In total we collected 22 bin liners full of assorted rubbish plus a plough attachment for a tractor and some nasty rusted barbed wire. A couple of hours later and with the sun still shining on our backs we returned to the Lepe Country Park office where all involved expressed their pleasure in playing their part in keeping this beautiful stretch of UK coastline cleaner and safer for all visitors, human, animal, bird and marine life.
As part of Rebearth’s adoption of Lepe beach we will be carrying out litter picks on a quarterly basis with the next one taking place over the Xmas period. All who attended today were keen to repeat the day’s activities, so with the added incentive of mince pies, we invite you to come along and join us and become not only a Friend of Lepe Country Park and Rebearth but more importantly of planet earth. Details of the next Beach Clean are available on the MCS Adopt a Beach website.
