ONLOOKERS were astonished to see council workmen shovelling waste from behind a line of Bournemouth beach huts and dumping it onto one of the resort’s Blue Flag-winning beaches.

One local has accused the council of “staggering stupidity” and claimed it cannot possibly know what was left to be washed away by the sea.

But Bournemouth council insists it is careful only to remove safe organic waste and leave it on the beach for the tide to break up.

A Daily Echo reader, who asked not to be named, took video footage of the council workmen shovelling material from a gulley into a wheelbarrow and tipping it onto the shore at Fishermans Walk, Southbourne, yesterday morning. He has raised the issue with pressure group Surfers Against Sewage.

“They were scooping up all the rubbish and pine needles and cones and anything that was there, putting it into wheelbarrows, wheeling it down the beach and there were little piles,” he said.

“It’s just staggering stupidity.

“The beach is a fantastic place to be, it’s the best it’s ever been, and then they go and do things like this.”

He said that human waste, condom and drug waste could easily have found their way into the materials.

“Unless they’re putting the stuff through a filter or sieving it, they run the risk of putting all sorts of rubbish onto the beach,” she said.

“There’s nothing to be gained from what they’ve done. What they should be doing is putting that into a bag and taking it to a mulching site.”

A statement from Andrew Brown, parks area officer for Bournemouth Borough Council, said: “From time to time the council does remove silt from gulleys behind the beach huts and place it on the shoreline for the wave action to break up.

“Great care is taken to ensure that only organic, natural and safe material is disposed of in this way. This helps to ensure that sand material blown off the beach is returned to the beach and accords with current advice from the Environment Agency.

“Our coastline is among the cleanest in Britain, with a seven-day a week operation to clean the promenade, beach and beach hut areas. That level of care has earned Bournemouth four Blue Flag awards and two Quality Coast awards.”

The Echo reader who witnessed the incident remained unconvinced.

“The words ‘great care’ do not appear in the same sentence as ‘wheelbarrow’, ‘shovel’ and ‘bloke from the council’,” he said.