THE bank holiday weekend saw Dorset’s beaches blighted with litter as bumper crowds enjoyed the seaside.

The barbecue area at Sandbanks beach was strewn with rubbish, with bins overflowing and black bags ripped open.

Resident Michael Gregg, who came across the mess, said a large amount of litter had already ended up in the sea.

Tony Straker said he was “appalled by the amount of beach litter left scattered along our beautiful coastline”.

The graphic artist has created a poster with a “positive emotional appeal” to encourage people to take home their litter.

“I believe it would be an effective addition to the council’s penalty warnings against leaving litter on the beach.

“My approach is a non-threatening appeal to the conscience of would-be litter bugs,” he said.

David Medina said the problem was exacerbated on Bournemouth seafront due to new ‘super bins’ being out of action at Pier Approach.

The receptacles are partially underground and have the capacity equivalent to five large four-wheeled bins.

“Every one of the new bins had notices reading ‘do not use – out of action’. Can you believe it? There were masses of people at the beach on Monday due to how hot the weather was,” he said.

Andrew Brown, seafront operations manager, said the bins were in the process of being commissioned and tested before use.

“Although now in place, the bins must be tested before they can be used which we are aiming to do so by mid June,” he said.

He added: “Last weekend was not any busier than a normal weekend at this time of year. Our bin collections and beach cleansing staffing were therefore the same as normal.

The team were back on site at 4.30am the following day and would have cleared up to ensure a clean, safe beach for our visitors within the first hour or so of working.

“Our messaging across both seafronts is asking our visitors to use our bins and, if they are full, to help our seafront environment by taking their rubbish home. We would also encourage the public to follow our recently launched Leave Only Footprints campaign.”

No fines were handed out to people littering at the weekend.

Bournemouth and Poole councils’ campaign urges visitors not to

litter, pointing out that the authorities spend £1million-£2m a year cleaning beaches. Currently, around 2,000 tonnes of rubbish are collected every year across the conurbation. Councils spend between £1 million and £2m every year clearing the beaches.Six people are employed full-time in rubbish collection on the seafront. A further 15 people are employed for seasonal work.

A petition, set up by Bournemouth resident Jane Cooper calling on councils to take further action to reduce the problem, has now reached over 5,700 signatures.