Glorious bank holiday weather has brought crowds to beaches across the isle – boosting trade but also resulting in rubbish being discarded on Thanet bays and proms.
Despite Thanet council doubling up on weekend litter picking schedules, complaints have surfaced on social media of overflowing bins and piles of trash strewn on beaches.
Cleaning and litter collections from beaches, proms and streets costs Thanet District Council £1.9m per year. Last year council staff collected over 5,642 tonnes of rubbish.
Last month Thanet council announced litter teams would be making rounds twice a day at the weekends, but it appears even that has not been enough to tackle the issue even though staff were working throughout the holiday weekend.
.One resident took these photos of rubbish at Botany Bay yesterday, saying: “Thanet District Council’s promise of doing twice daily rubbish collections around busy beach areas looks no more than a pipe dream.
“As you can see from the photographs the rubbish around both beach access areas is disgusting. This rubbish has been there for over 24 hours and I have seen rats foraging amongst the rubbish early this morning.
“To only provide one jumbo wheelie bin at each entrance along with two household size wheelie bins beggars belief.”
This morning at Botany Bay, the price we pay for tourism @ThanetCouncil @IsleThanetNews @LoveMargate #litter #Margate #Disgusting pic.twitter.com/lIMycQvQa0
— Lisa 🙂 (@ArklowShipFan) May 7, 2018
Pictures on social media also show the build up at the bay.
Bottles and cans were also thrown into the pond at Ellington Park in Ramsgate yesterday (May 6) with yobs also pouring milk into the water and a group left behind mounds of rubbish at Joss Bay.
Ellington Park trustees have stressed that the mess will be cleared and will have no impact on the upcoming May fair on May 20, which will have stalls selling a variety of goods, live music on the bandstand, a fun dog show, steam train rides, stalls and games of all kinds, funfair, beer tent and food stalls and lots more
All proceeds towards the regeneration of Ellington Park.
Walpole Bay getting busy today but only one overflowing bin down there. Can it please be emptied @ThanetCouncil and more bins put down. There were two all winter-albeit one without a lid. Thanks 👍. pic.twitter.com/sZ4ElVGRK3
— Walpole Bay (@WalpoleBaySwim) May 7, 2018
Beaches across the isle have been packed this weekend with thousands of visitors enjoying the sunshine. Rubbish has resulted from bins already filled to capacity but also from people leaving their trash dumped on the ground.
Thanet council steps up collections in the Summer season in a bid to keep beaches and proms clean for the essential tourist trade and residents but recent hot spells have seen the isle packed to capacity, piling on the workload for the street cleaners.
Isle residents have been digging in to do their bit this weekend with litter-picks across the isle, including by youngsters of 1st Westgate Beavers who turned out in force yesterday to tackle litter on the beach.
Six members of Westgate Against Rubbish (WAR) also litter picked the greens, the town and surrounding areas. Twelve bags of rubbish were collected.
Volunteers from The Ramsgate Society also carried a clean up of the town yesterday.
To report litter and overflowing bins to Thanet council click here
Why a clean isle is essential -Thanet tourism in numbers
Research by Visit Kent published at the end of 2016 shows the last collected data (new data due November 2018). This covers 2015:
3.9 million trips were undertaken in the area
3.4 million day trips
0.5 million overnight visits
2.1 million nights in the area as a result of overnight trips
£250 million spent by tourists during their visit to the area
£21 million spent on average in the local economy each month.
£122 million generated by overnight visits
£119 million generated from day trips.
£293 million spent in the local area as result of tourism, taking into account multiplier effects.
7,312 jobs supported, both for local residents from those living nearby.
6,403 tourism jobs directly supported
909 non-tourism related jobs supported linked to multiplier spend from tourism
Tourism and tourism related jobs are 17% of all jobs in Thanet
It is estimated that 34% of total trip expenditure was spent in the retail sector.
Approximately 27% was spent on food and drink
16% went towards the cost of accommodation.
Approximately 12% went on visits to attractions and other entertainment.
The remaining 11% was spent in the transport sector.
Are there enough bins?
A Thanet council spokesman said there are more than 400 bins across the district – around one every 200 feet.
52 x large 1100L public bins
240 x street and dog bins
120 park dog bins
