New hands on approach to clean beach

CONSERVATION volunteers have agreed a new method of cleaning a popular beach after finding a record amount of litter.

The city council stopped mechanically cleaning Cramond Beach three months ago, after the Marine Conservation Society raised concerns about erosion.

The conservation group found the beach had shrunk considerably in recent years as a result of destroying marram grass on the dunes, which stabilised the sand and kept it in place.

Now the council's local environment manager has agreed workers will clean the top part of the beach by hand to reduce damage to the dunes.

Fourteen MCS volunteers took part in a summer clean-up last Saturday and found nearly 2000 items in just 50 metres of beach.

Anne Saunders, the MCS' Scottish projects officer, said: "After leaving the beach for three months, the results of this latest Adopt-a-Beach survey show how much litter can accumulate at this local beauty spot – most of which is small pieces of plastic and cloth."