YOUNG Southenders will join forces with council workers and waste contractors next week for a day of action to clean up local beaches.

For Tuesday’s big beach tidy-up, youth organisation the Jigsaw Project will rope in youngsters from Chase High School and the Southend Vineyard church to work with waste contractor, Cory Environmental.

The event is the latest to be organised as part of the Echo-backed Love Southend, Hate Litter campaign, which aims to clean up the town’s beaches and encourage visitors to take their litter home with them.

Sam Dunlop, from the Jigsaw Project, said: “As part of our summer programme, young people can learn a skill, help in the neighbourhood and take part in family games. The beach clean comes under the heading of neighbourhood service.”

Hayley Watts, 15, from Southend Vineyard, volunteered to take part after reading about the event on the Facebook website.

She said: “When you take part you know you’re helping the community and not just doing something for yourself. It’s a good opportunity to make friends, too.”

David Jarvis, Southend councillor responsible for culture and tourism, said the initiative was fantastic and praised the Echo for taking the lead.

He said: “It’s a difficult subject, because we’re welcoming people to the town, but at the same time, asking them to be respectful and take their rubbish home.

“When I was a young man, it was unusual to see people throw litter on the ground, but things are different now. I hope this initiative will set a trend for the future.

“There are bins along the seafront with less than 100 yards or so between them, so there are plenty of them to use. Our message to visitors is ‘welcome – but please keep our coastline tidy’”.

Libby Landells-Hayward, 15, from Chase High School, said she was looking forward to helping the community as part of the clean-up, while also raising awareness for a school project called Silent Soul.

She said: “We’re going on a trip to Sri Lanka to help the children out there, and we’ve been raising all the money ourselves.

“We need to raise £1,500 each, so we’ve been arranging curry nights, fashion shows and even did a 10k run, for which we trained during half term.

“We’re all so passionate about the trip, so by twinning the two initiatives we hope to raise some awareness as well as helping the neighbourhood.”