These photos show the mess at Botany Bay – after volunteers had litter-picked more than 100kg of trash.
The Friends of Botany Bay and Kingsgate are questioning whether the bay has the facilities to cope with its many visitors.
The volunteers have been on regular cleaning patrols at the bay and have encouraged beach-goers to help with the task of keeping the area clean.
But yesterday (June 2) the volunteers left the bay clean and tidy at 7pm – only to find the bins overflowing again before morning crews from the council arrived.
The group posted: “Many say that Botany Bay does not have the infrastructure to cope with so many visitors. Especially when so many of them have little or no respect for the beach and local area.
“Volunteers collected over 100 kg of litter yesterday evening. This mess is from after we left at 7pm.
“Well done to the TDC workers who are confronted with this mess on a daily basis.”
Members have also issued an appeal for additional litter pick sticks.
They say: “We’ve given out a few in the community since the Covid (restrictions) preventing group litter picks and some have gone astray.”
The volunteers will continue with their daily clearance, and have received some help from residents and out of town beach visitors.
They said: “The unprecedented amount of litter being discarded on Botany Bay shows no sign of ending.
“Until a competent authority finds a way of solving this issue we will continue to meet daily at 5.30pm with litter pick equipment
“We’re more a drinking club with a litter picking problem than social crusaders – so let’s make a regular date of it, bring yourself, friends, good humour ……and perhaps a bottle of something.”
The litter pick ‘station’ is at the entrance to Botany Bay at bottom of Botany Road
Good on them. The Council should be embarrassed reading this but are probably just thinking “great – free labour”
No, it’s the people who leave their trash who should be ashamed not the council. No one can keep up with the skanks that are littering!
When I used to run the beachwatch campaign and let TDC know they would arrange for bins or bags to be emptied and collected the real problem is the public themselves for being irresponsible everybody blames the council it’s not normal life at moment.
The unpecedented conditions and warm weather have brought a hge amout of trippers to the beaches, some probably with Covid-19 also. The non social distancing will have spread this no doubt. There should have been restrictions along with regulations brought in to restrict the amount of people allowed on the beaches. It would be difficult but essential.
There is a sort of restriction, in that you must stay more than 2 yards away from others. If it’s not possible to do that on the beach, then the beach is full. Go somewhere else.
Brian Stewart-Smith has hit the nail on the head. There are far too many people who don’t care a toss. No matter how many bins, nor how often they’re emptied, there will always be those who just leave their rubbish where they were sitting.
This is a ridiculous ongoing problem, even before the pandemic, there were issues.
You could visit Botany Bay, Boundary Road Park, King George Park, Hartsdown Park Cecil Square, nearly all the bins are constantly overflowing, with bags placed at the side of bins, that the seagulls tear open.
In some areas, such as the Margate Harbour Arm, and around the Turner Centre, and lifeboat areas, there are no bins at all.
The people who empty the bins, do a great job, but there just aren’t enough staff to cope with so much rubbish, they need servicing more frequently.
Coming out of Sainsbury’s I could see lots of rubbish in Jackeys bakers field as well.
Totally agree with most commentators the problem is if you want more you have to pay for it through council tax nobody should not expect everything for nothing. There are extra bins in Margate as far as the harbour arm and the turner are concerned they are private ownership they should provide bins.
There used to be bins on the Harbour Arm (TDC responsibility), but they were taken away. Resulting in clowns leaving carrier bags full of rubbish laying around, or dumping it over the pier into the sea.
One of the main reasons the bins overflow is because some morons fill the bins with their domestic waste from their cars / vans. A friend of mine lives near the boating pool in Ramsgate she has photos of cars and vans emptying domestic waste from their vehicles and I have seen it in Joss bay and Botany Bay. As soon as the council empty the bins local residents fill them up with their home waste. One bin was full of porn magazines. It’s not just the visitors who cause the mess.
Hey, leave my magazines out of this issue, it’s better than fly tipping them, isn’t it?
Someone else could have read them, that’s perfect recycling.
Only joking.
Totally agree
I agree with the points about people being lazy. However, they don’t start being lazy when they visit Thanet. People are lazy all over the country. Why is it then that Thanet always looks dirty, litter everywhere, dog poo everywhere, bins overflowing? This is a systemic issue with the way TDC arrange and resource waste and recycling. It’s simply not good enough.
I bet anyone on here that this time next year when the warm weather arrives we have EXACTLY the same issues. As I said, it’s systemic.
Absolutely agree with your comment.
However if people used the available facitliities properly there would be far fewer problems, yesterday morning margate beach was a tip, rubbish strewn all over it, none of it near a bin. How late are the council meant to work? Around St.Johns church, people won’t use their seagull bags just dumping black bags on the street the night before, by morning gulls have done their bit.
The bulk bins around cliftonville are emptied very regularly, yet residents use them as a convenient place to dump anything they want, the concept of using a black sack beyond most. How much money should tdc spend picking up the mess that it would not be unresonable to expect people to deal with responsibly?
The most ridiculous thing at the moment is one has to make an appointment!!!!!!! To take rubbish to the local tip.
It’s a RUBBISH TIP. Not a heart transplant unit. Unbelievable.
If people want to use the beach as a tip they should be charged the going rate and make an appointment to turn up
The only way to stop rubbish is to stop the people. Dont TDC for the way the public behave when I was growing up our parents always took our rubbish home with them. But today they bring food etc to the beach and just dump their wrappers and rubbish. It’s the way society is nowaday its expects someone to tidy up behind them, it’s the Thatcher society of me,me,me
Leave the litter. Once visitors are three feet deep in rubbish and human faeces, maybe they’ll get the message to take their litter home…
just remove the bins,they are a magnet for misuse by many for so many reasons.
Put up signs,saying.No public facilities,fly tippers will be prosecuted.Take your trash home.CCTV etc.
It has worked elsewhere !
Ps,beach patrols mentioned earlier also work.
It’s a disgrace I’ve never seen the beach Ramsgate beach front walk so full bins whot are we paying council tax for
Oh yes traffic wardens ,in 3 months the beach front bins were even covered