Well, just spent another afternoon on Weymouth beach with my dog picking up litter (especially plastic), something I’ve done regularly ever since I was made aware of the extent of the problem by the Blue Planet 2 programme.

Since the storm of a couple weeks ago a lot of seaweed and eel grass was washed up on the beach and as I looked closely at these clumps of vegetation I saw myriads of small pieces of plastic along with bits of fishing paraphernalia (line, lead weights, lures etc).

Pieces of beach toys, plastic straws and lollipop sticks were also to be found in the sand which has been moved by mechanical diggers preparing for the oncoming Easter holiday. I could immediately see that a lot of this plastic has been around for a long time and was slowly disintegrating in the sea and realized that what I could see was but a small fraction of what was out there in our beautiful bay.

The other thing I realised was that when Easter comes I will no longer be allowed to walk along the full beach with my dog picking up the litter I come across, as dogs will be banned from Good Friday and, of course, the influx of holidaymakers will just add another season of discarded cups chip cartons, broken or lost plastic toys and all the other rubbish that gets left on the beach to be washed into the sea.

Among the four bags of litter I collected this Saturday were just two dog poos (which by the way are biodegradable unlike the bags of plastic bits I picked up).

I am not condoning those ignorant dog owners who can’t be bothered to pick up after their dog, they should be held to account, but I do feel the onus should be much more on preventing the escalating problem of all litter on the beach and indeed in the borough not just targeting one small group I know that other people who love our beautiful beach also do their bit to keep the beach clean and most of those I have met just happen to also be dog owners who feel, like me a sense of responsibility to do what we can to maintain the wonderful amenity that is our beach.

BRIAN HALLWORTH

Overbury Close Weymouth