“Dirty nappies, used sanitary towels, hundreds of nitrous oxide canisters and enough booze bottles to open a bar”.

These are just some of the items that were picked up by a group of volunteers who did an hour’s litter picking at Sandbanks following the mini-heatwave last week.

Bournemouth Echo:

Katie Mosses along with her partner and some friends, collected several bags worth of rubbish from Shore Road Beach on the morning of Friday June 26.

She said: "My partner and I and our friends decided to do a beach clean down at Sandbanks as we found that the beaches there don’t get cleaned by the council.

"It was horrible, there was litter everywhere."

Bournemouth Echo:

"We found everything really, mobile phones and wallets and then nappies and coat hangers where people have clearly been shopping for beach gear and then just thrown it away.

"People had clearly tried to hide their waste as it was buried under the sand."

BCP Council declared a major incident was called during the afternoon of Thursday June 25 due to overcrowding at hot spots along the Dorset coast including Bournemouth and Sandbanks.

Bournemouth Echo:

Sandbanks beach car park was closed for new entries from 3.30pm on Thursday afternoon until 9am on Friday to minimise visitors to the area.

“It is such a shame," said Katie.

She added: “We must have covered three quarters of the beach and picked up what we could, but we were unable to get to the reeds where I’m sure there must be loads of rubbish.

Bournemouth Echo:

“Over 50,000 people in the UK have lost their lives to this virus but people not only think it is OK to go to the beach but then also have the audacity to also litter whilst they are there.

“It is just pure ignorance and disrespectful to the people that live here.”