Over 62kg of litter was weighed in today at Great British Beach Clean in Formby

Dozens of people headed to our stunning Formby Beach today, despite the rain early on, armed with plastic bags and grabbers, ready for a big clean up. Councillor Denise Dutton was there early and ready to get stuck in with Andy Laverick who is a local Marine Conservation Society Sea Champion - local based volunteer.

The Great British Beach Clean which is a voluntary activity the Marine Conservation Society has developed with Marks & Spencer as a way of involving their staff, customers, friends, family and anyone who is interested to help clean a beach and increase awareness of the problems litter in the marine environment can bring. It is also an opportunity to make people aware of what wonderful wildlife exists on our beaches and seas.

The Marine Conservation Society are running the "Great British Beach Clean" as part of their Beachwatch surveying programme - helping people all around the UK to care for their coastline. This event ran between 18th and 21st of September

The Big Beach Clean event at Formby today was held at the National Trust on Freshfield Beach. It started today, Monday 21st of September from 10.00 am.

Over thirty volunteers came from across Merseyside to help clear up our beach. Plastic bottles, crisp packets, polystyrene, food cartons, pop bottles and lots more rubbish was retrieved!

At todays weigh-in, over 62 Kg of litter was collected in over 15 bin bags by over 30 volunteers during the event.

School Children and teachers from Newfield School in Thornton came along to help so a big Thankyou to them as well.

The previous national events last year saw a record breaking number of volunteers collect and recorded a whopping 273,747 pieces of litter. If anyone is interested in getting involved for future events, please visit

www.mcsuk.org/greatbritishbeachclean.

The previous event was televised on National TV at Freshfield and was a great success. We think this was another great success!