BEACH lovers took a stance against litter at the weekend, removing large amounts of waste from the shores of Silecroft.

Katherine Faudemer, 36, an editing team manager at CGP Books, and her husband Tim Faudemer, 32, a manufacturing engineer at BAE Systems started the Beach Clean Cumbria group on Facebook last year and have made great strides ever since.

With the help of volunteers, the pair from High Carley and their one year old son Forrest were able to clear a huge 277kg of waste from the beach.

Mrs Faudemer said: "We set up Beach Clean Cumbria Facebook group at the beginning of last year. We had an amazing response to it and we have nearly 600 members now.

"Last weekend we held a beach clean at Silecroft to get things going again, because we got the impression from the community that they wanted these events to start again.

"Some of the beaches on the west coast are really badly polluted. It tends to get worse the further you go from the proximity of the car parks.

"There was all sorts, plastic bottles, food packaging, really random things like shoes, lots of fishing waste such as nets and rope and unidentifiable bits of plastic that get smaller as they get bashed around in the sea."

Katherine has found all sorts of rubbish when out on previous cleans, once coming across a car dash board. She said: "If you can think of it, we have probably found it on the beach.

"It can feel a bit disheartening sometimes, but then you think we are here to do something about this and there are loads of people out there who are really supportive of it.

This years events will run alongside Surfers Against Sewage's Million Mile Clean campaign. After each litter pick, the number of miles covered will be recorded and fed back to the campaign.

For future event details, search 'Beach Clean Cumbria' on Facebook.