Two tyres, a plastic barrel, rusty scrap metal and 15 bags of rubbish were found on the Allonby beach on Saturday.

Fourteen volunteers set off from Allonby's northern car park at 10am on Saturday to remove rubbish from the beach. After two hours of work in strong winds, they collected that amount of potentially dangerous pollution.

The volunteers of all ages came from Carlisle, Penrith, Cockermouth and the Solway coast with the aim of protecting the shore from marine pollution.

They belong to a group called Fix the Firth which carries out one beach clean per week.

Organiser John Gorrill said, "We do a mixture of Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, normally from 10am to 12, with a weekly rota of eight beaches between Bowness on Solway and Crosscanonby.' Volunteers need walking fitness, warm clothes and wellies or boots. 'Concentration is more important than strength', adds John, 'because we always pick up thousands of small plastic things such as cotton buds and bottle tops.'

Details of future beach cleans on the Solway coast can be found in the What's On pages of cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk and the Volunteering section of lovemybeach.org. New people are welcome to help at these free events. All equipment is provided and there is no need to book in advance.