ALMOST 1,000 plastic bags have been retrieved from a beauty spot in Poole.

Patrick Olivier, 41, and seven other volunteers fished out the carrier bags last month that had become caught in a metal grill at the end of Coy Pond near the railway bridge.

Patrick, who lives in nearby Surrey Road, walks his dog through the gardens each day and only discovered all the bags that had built up after council workers cut back an area of reeds that had become overgrown following the hot summer weather which revealed the extent of the waste.

He said: "It looked like it's just a metal mouth chewing up bags."

He decided to take matters into his own hands and on November 16, Patrick and volunteers from Millennium House in Surrey Road carried out their clean-up.

It took around an-hour-and-a-half to remove all the bags which Patrick said had become so compacted he had to use a hammer and a chisel to remove them as volunteers picked them up.

"It was nearly 1,000. It was really disgusting, there were worms in it trying to eat it all. That is what's going on with our waterways and it's been a bit of a blessing because it's shown how bad the problem really is."

He said he felt "gutted" to see how many plastic bags had become stuck.

Patrick said: "Since we’ve taken that big lot out, it’s all just flying through now and it’s there, so we can’t help that and now because it’s all flowing through and people are seeing the rubbish and how bad it is they are all saying “what we can we do?” and I’ve got 20, 30 volunteers wanting to come down on my next project.”

"I'm just doing it because it needs to be done," he added.

Patrick is now looking to hear from anyone who can offer a van or their time to help with his next project which will see him tackle an area of heath to the rear of Coy Pond. People can search for Patrick on social media using the hashtag #plasticfreebroadway