Great Solent Beach Clean: Shock as lorry tires are found during beach clean

CHARITY bags, a collection pot and even two lorry tires were all found in Stokes Bay this morning, after more than 100 people took to Gosport's seafront for the Great British Beach Clean.

An assortment of weird and wonderful items were collected by keen litter pickers, who went above and beyond to clean the entirety of the Stokes Bay shoreline.

But the group was shocked to find two lorry tires that had been fly-tipped into the bushes by Stokes Bay Car Park '“ which have now been handed over to Gosport Borough Council, along with the rest of the rubbish collected.

The tires were discovered by 39-year-old Brian Briggs.

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He said: '˜ The tires were about 20ft from a large pile of abandoned charity bags.

'˜It was definitely surprising '“ you definitely expect to find certain things that are dumped around here like cigarette buts and bottle lids, but a couple of commercial lorry tires isn't quite what I was expecting.

'˜It was just ridiculous really.

'˜The way I see it, we shouldn't necessarily have to do events like this because it shouldn't be happening in the first place '“ but since we are the local residents we want the kids to have somewhere that they can enjoy, so you want it to look nice for everyone.'

Cllr Kevin Casey, part of the Friends of Stokes Bay group, helped to organise the event '“ one of four to take place across the Solent region today.

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He said: '˜I can't say I expected to find lorry tires today, and it was a bit of a slog getting them to the rubbish pile, especially for a retired man like me!

'˜But today has been brilliant; what has been really great to see is the number of families here today.

'˜When there is something like this happening and you see families join in it's a great sign '“ that education of the youngsters is so important and I really feel like they've got a great chance to make a difference in their lives.

'˜As litter picking becomes more prominent we're starting to see real improvements in the area. Stokes Bay looks much better than it did this time last year and that is all thanks to people giving up their time to do something positive for the community.'

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