NOBODY could fail to be shocked by the piles of rubbish you find on Southend’s beaches after any busy summer weekend.

Fast food and sandwich boxes, sweet wrappers, coffee cups and cans are regularly strewn across the beaches by daytrippers.

In a single day, more than ten tonnes of rubbish was piled up along the seafront, all of it carelessly discarded by visitors.

So, how can we keep our town clean and send a message to day trippers that they should take home their rubbish?

The Love Southend – Hate Litter litter campaign, supported by the Echo, is aiming to change their behaviour and emphasise the importance of keeping the town clean.

But it is also down to the residents to do their bit, by showing a bit of civic pride and keeping the town clean and tidy.

Derek Jarvis, Southend councillor responsible for culture and tourism, said: “We welcome visitors at our fabulous beaches and the seaside, but we want to keep them that way. We’re saying to people, ‘there are plenty of waste bins here – please use them’.”

Mr Jarvis and fellow councillors helped launch the Love Southend, Hate Litter campaign at Three Shells Beach and presented T-shirts to delighted tourists Katie Frost, ten, from Hertfordshire, and Elif Kozkiran, nine, from Edmonton, North London.

Tony Cox, Southend councillor responsible for waste disposal, is passionate about the notion of getting people to join in to keep the town clean, tidy and welcoming.

He said: “It’s about civic pride and making sure our town is a great place.

“We welcome everybody to come to Southend. It’s obviously nice so many people want to come here and it benefits local traders.

“But ten tonnes of rubbish were collected in one day. If the bins are full, we say, please just take your rubbish with you.

Please be responsible and leave the seaside how you would expect to find it.