THE city council says it faces a “daily battle” to keep its beaches clean as it revealed more than 300 tonnes of rubbish has been dumped on the seafront this summer.

Street cleansing staff from Brighton and Hove City Council have had to clean up a mountain of waste left by beachgoers in recent months, including 30,000kg in one weekend.

Councillor Amy Heley, chairwoman of the council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee, said: “These figures are truly shocking and show we face a daily battle to protect our beach from those who are happy to leave their rubbish behind.

“But there’s no excuse. We have 500 bins along the seafront, our Cityclean teams are carrying out more collections than ever before and we have installed CCTV at Hove Lawns and the central beach area.”

The council said many people are still failing to remove the waste they take onto the beach, like bottles, cans, food wrapping and hundreds of different types of plastics items.

If they do take their waste off the beach, they are leaving it beside already overflowing bins rather than finding a bin that is not full or taking it home, the council said.

Stuart Davies, from Surfers Against Sewage, said: “These figures confirm what we knew from working on the ground – that our most natural precious asset is being laid to waste on a daily basis.

“There are ample bins along the seafront, so the message is clear – if you come to use our beach, take your litter with you off the beach.

“It does extreme damage to our local marine life when rubbish is left to be washed into the sea by the incoming tide. If you don’t remove your rubbish and you’re spotted, then rightly you’ll be held to account for it with a significant fine.”