Civic-minded local volunteers helped clean the beach at Carnlough Saturday afternoon at low tide. Organised by Larne Borough Council together with Tidy NI, volunteers from the community, including the Carnlough Community Association and the Marine Conservation Society helped to tidy the beach.

Among the items recovered was a car battery, a tractor tire, and a traffic cone encrusted with barnacles. In total, more than a dozen bags of debris was collected and taken for disposal by Council staff.

"We're very grateful to the people who came along on Saturday to make the event a success," said Lynda Foy, Countryside Officer for Larne Borough Council. "We're also grateful to the majority of citizens who take their litter home when visiting our beaches. Their efforts help to reduce the amount of time Council staff need to spend cleaning the beaches. This frees their time for other tasks including tending flower beds, looking after grass verges and generally keeping the Borough looking good."

Saturday's beach clean was the Council's third of the season, following on the success of previous events at Ballygalley on World Oceans Day 8^th June, and Brown's Bay beach 28^th June. It comes just a few days before Tidy NI's "Clean Coast" Awards programme, set for Wednesday at the Londonderry Arms Hotel.

Larne Borough Council manages almost 80 miles of world-renowned coastline in County Antrim, within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.