I WOULD like to take this opportunity to respond to the letter printed on 5 October about litter on Bournemouth’s beaches.

We take the cleanliness of the beaches very seriously and know from research that a clean sandy beach is the main reason for people visiting.

The beach cleansing team are well-resourced and do a fantastic job in often difficult circumstances to make sure we surpass the standards expected and enable the town to maintain the four Blue Flags and two Quality Coast Awards.

Beach litter is either left by visitors or it’s marine debris that is washed up.

The Surfers Against Sewage Beach Clean is a national programme which works fantastically well and gets many thousands of volunteers involved. They focus on marine litter and much of what was collected would have been washed up at some point.

Our cleaners often find debris that has come from North America, Africa or been dumped overboard from vessels. Whilst the Council will continue to resource a high quality beach cleansing team the public can make the greatest difference by stopping to think before discarding litter, wherever they are.

CHRIS SAUNDERS, Seafront Manager, Bournemouth