A free beach toy library has been opened on Minehead seafront.

It provides locals and visitors to Minehead with an opportunity to borrow from a selection of beach toys including buckets, spades, sand moulds, frisbees, balls, fishing nets and more. The library, which is housed in a beach hut, in the courtyard between the Beach Hotel and Minehead Tourist Information Centre will be open every day throughout the summer holidays from 10am in the morning until 4pm in the afternoon.

The library has been established with the support and help of the Beach Hotel, Minehead Tourist Information Centre, Minehead and Coast Development Trust, Minehead Bid, Litter Free Coast and Sea – Somerset and Plastic Free Minehead.

Many of the donations of beach toys that have been used to set up the library are items that have been collected during the past two years on beach cleans along the West Somerset Coast.

Anyone wishing to donate beach toys to the library can leave them at the Beach Hotel.

A spokesperson for Plastic Free Minehead said, “We are delighted to be able to provide a free collection of toys for children and families to borrow from and enjoy during their visits to Minehead beach.

“Hopefully this will mean that not only can we support families who may not have the spare money to buy new toys but also it is a way of encouraging people to think about their use of plastic and to re-use these old toys rather than buying new ones.

Another aim of this project is to encourage visitors who have bought new toys for their holiday to donate them to the library once they have finished with them. Hopefully this will help boost our stocks while at the same time reducing the number of toys that are thrown away or left on the beach.

Plastic Free Minehead is very grateful for the support and help provided by the organisations listed above and to the staff at the Beach Hotel and the Minehead Tourist Information Centre, who have kindly agreed to look after the hut during the summer holidays.”