Your beach needs you! A big clean-up can help protect our city's finest asset

The May Bank Holiday weekend, with its predicted sunshine, is set to draw plenty of sun-seekers down to our beach.

Unfortunately, experience has shown that an irresponsible minority do not use the many bins available. Instead, they leave their rubbish behind - making a mess of our beach, ruining the space for others and polluting our water.

This is not unusual. During the busiest weekends in the summer, the amount of rubbish left on our beaches can amount to an extraordinary 10 tonnes a day.

So I am delighted to be taking part in a volunteers' Big Beach Clean-up after the bank holiday weekend, to raise awareness about the issue.

The council's beach-cleaners do a brilliant job in all weathers, but the residents and visitors alike need to take care with their litter - and either take it home or bin it.

To make it as easy as possible to dispose of litter, we are also installing 12 big, new recycling bins along Brighton seafront between the piers. People can drop off their glass, cardboard, plastic bottles, newspapers, magazines, food, and drinks cans; the bins will be emptied daily.

Many residents and visitors have barbecues on the beach. So we have installed another 20 special bins for disposing of barbecues. These are in addition to the permanent and temporary general rubbish bins that are available on the seafront all-year-round.

We have to do all we can to protect the beach, because it is Brighton and Hove's best asset. It is what draws so many visitors to our city, and is a great space for residents to relax and enjoy what the city has to offer.

So I am delighted to support another Big Beach Clean Up. We can all do our bit to stop littering and help keep our wonderful beach clean.

The Big Beach Clean-up is from 8.30am to 10.30am on Tuesday, May 27.