Bognor Regis photographer organising beach clean this summer

The clean up is planned for June 27 and participants are asked to meet up on the pier at 10am.

The event will be held in conjunction with the million mile clean-up: a national initiative which will see volunteers all over country cleaning up Britain’s streets, beaches and rivers.

Organised by Surfers Against Sewage, volunteers will walk ten miles in a group or on their own, cleaning as they go.

Organiser Georgina Smith, a 22 year old photographer, said she hopes the clean-up will give members of the community a chance to reconnect with the environment as lockdown lifts.

“I’ve always wanted to join a beach clean but, with Covid, a lot of them have been cancelled. So I thought I’d start my own and get the community together for the day.”

“I want it to be more than just a beach clean. I want it to be a community day, I want people to have a bit of fun, meet new people. That sort of thing.”

She also hopes the clean-up will have a very real environmental benefit. Miss Smith says it represents a fresh opportunity to renew our appreciation for the beach as a landscape, as a natural and important part of our community: “The amount of rubbish I see there and the way we treat the beach. I think we need to appreciate it a bit more.”

With nearly 300 responses on Facebook, June 27 is set to be a huge success. Part of the reason why, Miss Smith says, is that people care about the beach, but don’t always know how to help.

“I think a lot of people don’t know how to get started, so if I can help in that way and give them some of the equipment and show them how to do it, I think more people will do it more often.”

To find out more about the clean up effort, visit the Facebook event page and, for more on The Million Mile clean, organised by Surfers Against Sewage, click here.