300,000 people came to Brighton over the bank holiday weekend this year! Tourists flocked from far and wide to enjoy Brighton’s cultural offerings but in their wake left 20 tonnes of litter behind. This weekend held host to the official opening of Fringe and the Festival, Hove Lawns Food Festival and The Children’s Parade. Undoubtedly as the summer months go on more people will come to Brighton to join the fun…leaving even more rubbish behind.
Councillor Gill Mitchell said “It’s great to see so many people coming to our brilliant city and enjoying all the facilities we have. It was one of the city’s busiest bank holiday weekends ever. But the city’s popularity also means vast amounts more litter and waste being left behind on our beaches and dropped on our streets, and the demand on our street and beach cleaning teams was extremely high.”
Whilst the city is great in terms of offering people an exciting day trip or weekend away it is upon our shoulders to take rubbish home with us and if everyone did so, the large scale operations (which no doubt cost tax payers money) would not be quite as big. Councillor Mitchell further said “If a bin is full, we would ask people to find another one – there are lots of big black bins on the promenade – or take their rubbish home with them. Leaving it on the beach or beside an overflowing bin is not acceptable. It’s everyone’s responsibility to keep our city clean.” The bins are emptied at least once a day and over the summer months this, in theory, increases in line with demand.
On the 20th May there will be a ‘Pier 2 Pier Silent Disco Beach Clean’ in a bid to tackle the litter left behind by beach frequenters. The event will aim to pick up every piece of rubbish and furthermore they want to inspire the younger generation to take care of marine life and the natural beauty spots they visit. Check our article to find out further details on how you can get involved.
Featured image: James Boardman
Where have the Sharing buttons gone?
It’d be nice if you gave credit to the original photographer, James Boardman from Rex Features who took the photo after Fatboy Slim played in 2009. Just sayin’…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2009/apr/08/waste-marine-life#img-2
Yes Dave……brutal true round house kick to the head.lol
Litter and single use plastics is a world-wide problem. I’m sad to see this happen in my home town. In response to this article many posted that we should introduce tourist tax to pay for the clean up.
However, a tax isn’t going to stop it happening. It will just pay for the clean-up. Also it’s kinda sending the message to tourist that they have already paid the the clear up, so it’s OK to act like pigs. We actually need to takle the problem itself. You can clearly see in this picture that nearly all of the waste is disposable plastics. I can also see some glass bottles there. The plastic problem needs to be solved worldwide. Deposit return schemes will help: All the bars along the beach should charge a deposit on glasses/plastic cups. All bottles (glass and plastic) should have deposits. Often when people are drunk, they don’t care about the deposit, but other people will. Other people will happily come down and collect waste in return for making money on the returns. I’ve seen this while drinking in Germany outside a college. An old guy sat there and when we finished drinking he took the the bottles that others couldn’t be bothered to take. Also Ban ‘disposable’ plastic bags. The world existed and people were able to do their shopping before these were inverted and it will exist a lot happier without them.
Terrible journalism to use an old photo of an actual post rave cleanup.
Agree totally
You’re so right. What an indictment to turn such an important issue into ‘clickbait’ just to sensationalise it. In doing so, I wonder if the journalist considers how they cheapify their reputation in a society where readers are increasingly sensitive about being played by fake news. If BJournal seems to think editorial standards don’t matter, they’re mistaken.
Please be aware of sharps one bare foot or hand the consequences of a horrid disease is high buried amongst the rubbish
Finding overflowing bins seems to give people an excuse not to deal with their own rubbish.
The message to visitors to the beach should be absolutely unequivocal – take your rubbish home with you.
How to be a journalist lesson 1: using photos that are infact of different events to illustrate your story is classic fake news. No one doubts that tourists and locals could do more to keep Brighton tidy, but this kind of sloppy reporting puts you in the Fox News, Daily Mail, The Sun category of cr*p. Disappointing as there is a story here – that just isn’t a relevant photo, and pre-dates the events reported by several years… boo.
Not thus bank holiday this was after a fat boy skim gig 15-16 years ago
Agreed absolute terrible journalism get ya fact straight
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