Gill Mitchell: A plea to beach-goers to pick up their rubbish

Brighton and Hove City Council's sea\front team is teaming up with local businesses for the #2minutebeachclean campaign

The campaign asked residents to think about their immediate environment, and to support CityClean in keeping our streets neat and tidy. There were great posters and lots of positive action taken to raise awareness, so that residents could help our city look its best.

Following this success, and now summer is here, let’s try to raise awareness about the beach and seafront. Residents and visitors alike can help make it somewhere to be proud of – even after a busy summer weekend.

The city loves its visitors, and residents love the beach, but between everyone we leave tonnes of rubbish behind, which is a huge task to clear up and costs the council a great deal of money. So this year the council is going to ask beach-goers to help out by picking up their own rubbish at the end of the day - the #2minutebeachclean.

This is a great initiative from the council’s Seafront Team – to join a growing campaign #2minutebeachclean, which has been running in various places since 2014.

The #2minutebeachclean asks everyone to ‘do their bit’ to keep beaches clean by spending “two minutes” picking up litter before they go home. Not only will this help the seafront remain somewhere to be proud of, it will also protect the marine environment and marine life, so it is makes sense that it was launched on World Environment Day Monday,June 5.

So let’s follow on from the great work of the “Crime Not To Care” campaign and spread the enthusiasm for protecting our city environment onto the beaches and seafront this summer. I was also so pleased two of the city’s beaches got coveted Blue Flag status this year, something else to celebrate and making everyone’s efforts worthwhile.

Look out for the #2minutebeachclean noticeboards on the seafront where you can ask how to help and borrow a litter picker if needed. If you want to spread the word, you can share photos on social media of your #2minutebeachclean.

For more information about the campaign, visit: www.beachclean.net

Gill Mitchell is a Labour councillor and the lead member for environment on Brighton and Hove City Council.