WOMEN’S Institute (WI) members in Minehead turned out to help with the town’s latest beach clean organised by Plastic Free Communities West Somerset.

More than 30 volunteers attended the hour long evening event including WI members under the branding ‘Minehead WInspirations’.

The clean-up session was part of the Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) campaign ‘Million Mile Clean’which aims to rally 100,000 volunteers to each clean 10 miles of blue, green, or city space each year.

The campaign started in 2021 and will run annually until 2030, by which time SAS hopes to have mobilised a million volunteers who will have cleaned more than 10 million miles of the UK’s landscape.

Keith Hunt and Peter Hoyland conduct an audit of items collected during a Minehead beach clean volunteer session.
Keith Hunt and Peter Hoyland conduct an audit of items collected during a Minehead beach clean volunteer session. (PFWSC)

A Plastic Free Communities West Somerset spokesperson said: “During the course of the evening the 32 volunteers did an incredible job of cleaning litter from the beach and the promenade.

“Interesting items collected included two sun loungers, a kite, a child’s beach shoe, a Somerset Council information sign, a bike lock, and a Tupperware box full of 1p pieces that looked like it had been in the sea for a while.

“Sadly, volunteers also found lots of broken glass and numerous cigarette ends.”

An audit of the litter collected was carried out by Keith Hunt, from Minehead eco shop Our Precious Earth, and Plastic Free Exmoor’s Peter Hoyland to help to identify the top polluting brands.

Members of Minehead Women's Institute joined a beach clean volunteering evening.
Members of Minehead Women's Institute joined a beach clean volunteering evening. (WI)

They found Coca-Cola came top with 15 items, followed by nine from McDonalds, and eight each for Walkers, Tesco, and Lidl GB, with seven each for Thatchers Cider and Walls.

Plastic Free Communities West Somerset is also organising a special screening in Minehead’s Regal Theatre on September 25 of David Attenborough’s OCEAN.

An introduction will be given by Mr Hunt and Mr Hoyland and a question and answer session will be held after the screening, for which tickets can be booked online.