Beach cleans

Community groups can organise their own beach cleans. All you have to do is submit the online application below – which will include all the information required for obtaining landowner permission (Thanet Council Beaches & Coast) & enable you to book out equipment on loan for your beach clean on the Thanet Coast:

Organisers need to submit a

• Organised Groups /Beach Clean – Notification Form

You can get initial advice: talk to us (at thanet.coast@thanet.gov.uk) about landowner permission, beach clean locations and date/time/tides for the clean.

But you will need to complete this online form, and:

• Carry out your own beach clean ‘risk assessment’. A TDC general Community Clean Up (litter pick) template can be used as a starting point, if needed. However, you will need to UPDATE with current health advice – such as coronavirus or bird flu measures – into this table.  Further safety guidelines are also produced by the Marine Conservation Society’s Great British Beach Clean, and Keep Britain Tidy with coronavirus advice; & any existing Beach Management plan for the coast.
• Arrange for & show us your own public liability insurance.  Alternatively you can arrange cover by linking up with beach clean organisations that can sometimes provide this through their campaigns eg Marine Conservation Society’s Beachwatch; SAS – Surfers Against Sewage.
• Notify us if you intend to borrow equipment: this will start arrangements to book out and borrow our beach clean equipment, if needed. Litter sticks, bags, hoops, and a bucket for ‘sharps’ for instance. You will also need to consider ‘First Aid’ cover at your beach clean.

We will help arrange with you for when & where the filled litter bags will be left for collection by Thanet Council’s Cleansing team, after the clean up.

PLEASE NOTE – For INLAND LITTER PICKS in Thanet, please view:

• Join a litter pick & use Thanet Council’s online inland Litter Pick Notification form

There are many local voluntary groups running beach cleans around the NE Kent coast, and these are the ones that have let us know of their activities:

Birchington Anti-litter Group (BAG) organise regular impromptu litter picks that include the beaches around the area. See their facebook page for more information.

Westgate Town Council  have beach & litter clean equipment available for loans to groups wishing to help clean up in the Westgate area (Westgate Against Rubbish WAR)

Rise Up. Clean Up. Margate – regular monthly cleans, and weekly over the summer. More on their website and Twitter

A Better Cliftonville (ABC) & Walpole Bay Swimmers (WBS) – are running regular Walpole Bay beach cleans at 11am on the last Sunday of the month, meeting at the ramp to Walpole Tidal Pool.

Palm Bay & Northdown Community Group (private group)

Friends of Botany Bay and Kingsgate – Registered CIC and runs regular beach cleans with local volunteers.

Broadstairs Town Team are running regular beach cleans, as well as work around town. Litter pickers, plastic bags and hoops will be provided, but please note: on these cleans, you are advised to bring your own gloves and wear warm clothing! Please view their Facebook site for location & further details (please use link above).

Ramsgate Town Team; Ramsgate Town Council have various clean up projects and an online group – Ramsgate Litter Pickers (facebook) – as well as campaigns like the Great Spring Clean.

Advice on other cleans in the Ramsgate area – different groups occasionally undertake projects eg Ramsgate Society or Winterstoke Gardens/East Cliff projects

Western Undercliff – Artificial Beach Group, Ramsgate – run clean ups in this part of the Ramsgate coast.

Thanet Coast Project – Also see What’s On (events). Beach Cleans at Pegwell Bay, Cliffsend (CT12 5JD). Joint cleans within the National Nature Reserve with Kent Wildlife Trust. Meet on the beach below the former hoverport access road, Cliffsend.

These clean ups are also run in conjunction with the Marine Conservation Society volunteers – and particularly their annual Great British Beach Clean event in September (part of Beachwatch). All cleans last 2 hours. Next ones are:

• • 28 March 2024, 10am – Pegwell Bay = Spring Beach Clean = COMPLETED
  • Fri 28 June, 10am – Pegwell Bay, Cliffsend = COMPLETED
  • Sat 21 Sept, 10am – Pegwell Bay, Cliffsend = Great British Beach Clean (20-29 Sept, MCS)    = COMPLETED
  • Sat 21 Sept, 2pm – Plum Pudding/Northern Sea Wall beaches, near Minnis Bay, Birchington – COMPLETED
  • Fri 6 Dec, 10am – Pegwell Bay, Cliffsend
  • Fri 28 March 2025, 2pm: Spring Beach Clean – Pegwell Bay, Cliffsend

   

For Whitstable & Herne Bay area:

• you can also register to organise a litter pick with Canterbury City Council.

Herne Bay – Bay Beach Clean

Whitstable – Whitstable’s Marine Environment Group – run monthly beach cleans

For Deal and Sandwich area:

• you can organise a litter pick with help from Dover District Council.

Deal – Deal With It – run regular beach cleans along the coast in the Deal & Warmer area.

The Thanet Coast has a series of #2minutebeachclean {please click on link} stations where you can borrow a stick, and fill a bag with beach litter – following the safety guidance issued, & can post your good work on social media for everyone to see how easy it is to get involved!  More information on your own 2-minute beach clean.

Margate Main Sands also has a number of bag dispenser points for collecting beach litter – thanks to  ‘Rise Up Clean Up Margate’ & Thanet District Council.

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) – run beach clean tasks and have great Spring & Autumn Beach Cleans.

Marine Conservation Society’s ‘Beachwatch’ (MCS) – run beach clean tasks and coordinate the Great British Beach Clean (every third weekend in September).

Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) – run various campaigns eg Great British Spring Clean & The Big Tidy Up.