A PROTEST against the amount of litter discarded on Bournemouth Beach took place today.

Southbourne resident Tom Bickle organised the event, which included a large banner displayed next to the town's pier, to highlight the "obscene amount of litter" dumped by visitors each year.

The 36-year-old marketing manager, from Southbourne, told the Daily Echo: "I'm just fed up with people leaving their rubbish on our beautiful beach.

"This is about respect, leaving the beach,nice for other people to use.

"If you use the beach leave only footprints, don't treat it as a pigsty. It's not very nice to sit surrounded by beer cans and fast food wrappers."

The protest took place at Bournemouth Pier at midday.

It comes after a video was released last month showing Bournemouth beach strewn with litter.

Tom also said that when he lived in Austria and Germany for ten years, litter was never an issue.

"But since I've come back to the UK it feels like we are drowning in it," he added. "I think Britain looks its best when it is clean.

"If you're driving down the road and there's fly-tipping, or there's litter left in public areas, it looks like people just don't care.

"If twenty people read our banner asking them to use the bins, that's twenty people who might then tell their kids, and it could grow from there."

Meanwhile, a separate online petition also highlighting litter on Bournemouth Beach, has called for enforcement of on-the-spot fines for beach littering.

Dean Donovan, 21, who established the petition with girlfriend Sarah Holmes, said: "We love seeing our beautiful beaches in a healthy environment.

"We thought if we started a petition it might make people think twice about their litter.

"It is quite disheartening when it is something as easy as picking up your litter and putting it away."

The online petition, which already has hundreds of supporters, is available at Change.org.