A great number of volunteers showed their support for the Plastic Free Coastlines initiative by joining in with a clean-up of Tenby’s South Beach on Sunday.

Local store the White Stuff and members of Tenby Surf Lifesaving Club joined forces to organise the beach clean, following plans for a ‘plastic-free Tenby’ scheme to be set up.

Recently, over 50 people met for the inaugural meeting of the ‘plastic-free Tenby’ initiative, following discussions led by Tenby Town Council, calling for individuals, organisations and businesses in the resort to get involved in reducing the use of the single-use plastics that are causing so much pollution in our seas and on our beaches.

Cornish town, Penzance recently become the first community in the UK to be awarded ‘plastic-free’ status after dozens of residents and business owners backed the scheme run by the marine conservation charity.

One volunteer who took part in Sunday’s event, commented on the ‘Plastic-Free Tenby’ Facebook page, that it was great to see that the South Beach itself was pretty clean, but that access routes and dunes were a different story.

“Really sad that so much of the littering is deliberate - bottles and cans thrown in the dunes, and bags of dog mess thrown in the hedges just off the footpath all the way down to the beach. Just so unnecessary! If you’re going to bag it, bin it!!” they commented.

Pembrokeshire County Council arranged for the litter to be collected.

Plastic-Free Tenby will be organising another beach clean next month and a further meeting soon, with details set to appear on the group’s Facebook page.

Following the beach clean, which saw around 50 volunteers take part, Sarah Davies, manager of Tenby’s White Stuff store, said that it was a ‘great afternoon’ despite the drizzly weather.

“People out walking their dogs on the beach came along and offered to take part as well, and everyone was very glad of the refreshments provided by the surf lifesaving club.

“We’ve had a whole week of fundraising activities for the club, which has brought in around £150, and we are now looking towards helping them fundraise for a litter-pick board for the beach.”

Keep Wales Tidy provided rubbish collection bags for the clean-up and the 30 full sacks were later collected by Pembrokeshire County Council.