Conservation group named winners for beach clean at We Can Do It awards

Southsea’s Marine Conservation Society won the Care of the Environment award after a team of 50 volunteers spent the day cleaning the beach.

Bags of plastic, rubbish and other items were collected from a 300m stretch of Southsea beach during the clean-up earlier this year.

Volunteers Lara Skingsley and Jane Di Dino picked up the trophy on Sunday.

Lara said: ‘It is a lovely surprise.

‘We were nominated a couple of years ago, so to win this year was fantastic.

‘We have had more and more volunteers join us for the beach cleans, so it is lovely to see their hard work recognised.

‘I will look forward to telling the volunteers at our next beach clean.’

As well as carrying out beach cleans, the group also does surveys to see how much rubbish is ending up on our shorelines.

Jane added: ‘This year we saw 50 per cent fewer plastic bags, but we had more general plastic waste.

‘It is important we carry out the annual surveys, but also carry on with the regular beach cleans.’

Clanfield Online was named as runner-up for the Care of the Environment award.

Thanks to the business network group, the construction of a bee-friendly flowerbed was commissioned around a busy roundabout in a bid to help preserve bees.