Four generations of a local family, including two councillors, joined forces to help clean up a local beach recently.

Victoria Reyer and her mother, Josie Crawford, decided to help improve the beach at Coatham as part of the Beachwatch Big Weekend 2011. The event is organised by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) every September.

Both Josie and Victoria represent coastal wards on Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, Josie in Coatham and Victoria in Longbeck.

The councillors roped in Josie’s husband Colin, her father Peter Bacon and Victoria’s five year old son Jack.

The volunteers collected and recorded the rubbish along a 100 metre stretch of Redcar beach. The data will help MCS identify the main sources of litter on the beach and keep the issue of the dangers of marine litter high on the local agenda.

Cllr Josie Crawford says these beach cleans are vital:

“Beach litter isn’t just unsightly, it can also be dangerous to both humans and wildlife. MCS is working towards ensuring local communities right up to UK governments work together to try and stop littering at source. On Redcar beach the main types of litter we found were cotton buds, plastic lolly sticks and balloons.”

“We all had great fun and I would encourage local families to get involved – the information can be found online at www.mcsuk.org”