New 'bucket and spade trade' box installed on St Annes beach

Following requests from volunteer litter picking group ‘Tossers in Lytham St Annes’ to implement the scheme, Fylde Council has created the trade-in area for unwanted buckets and spades

for others to use.

The volunteer group has noticed a high percentage of the litter left behind by beachgoers is unwanted bucket and spade sets, including the netting the sets are purchased in.

Plastic causes catastrophic damage to our marine life so it is hoped the new scheme will reduce the amount of plastics purchased due to the ability to ‘recycle’ the sets in the designated

‘bucket and spade trade’ boxes when people arrive and leave the beach.

Coun Michael Sayward, chairman of the tourism and leisure committee for Fylde Council, said: “This is a fantastic scheme that will help to reduce plastic littering our shoreline and ending

up polluting our precious sea.

“It’s always disappointing to see a perfectly useable bucket and spade thrown away, so for those who don’t want to take them home they now have the option to leave them for others to

use.”