[Wobs]

Ban people.

How much litter is recorded to be on a beach will depend on what time of day the survey is carried.

If a beach is a busy one, with families going on it daily, the council will often have planned daily tidying schedules, maybe with a tractor seiving the sand. This maybe carried out at the end or beginning of the day, but by about 4pm, the beaches could be covered in litter. It doesn't take many people to be iresponsible to make the beach look a tip, and a small minority of a large crowd can make a large visual impact in terms of litter.

Our local council has let things slip on occasion, but they have staff manning the beaches all day to look after them.

When the beach is surveyed, you have to make sure they are done at the same time every year to make a comparison, and the weather is similar, as poor weather will yield less people. Otherwise it is a misleading result. Also, you can't really compare different beaches, as one person will do all the beaches in a certain area, and as such will do one beach in the morning, and another further along the coast later in the day, and so they can't really be compared.