By Fethi Benaissa

Easter Weekend and bank holiday have attracted hundreds of people to Ayr Beach to enjoy the warm weather. According to the Met Office, Scotland has registered the warmest Easter Sunday on record.

However, this has caused a significant amount of improper litter disposal on the beach in Ayr, sparking anger among local residents.

Pamela, Ayr resident, came to the beach this morning to do some jogging. She is in favour of people using the beach but thinks a change in behaviour is needed: “Just take your rubbish away. Easy to do. Plenty of receptacles round about to be put in. It’s not hard to do”.

Douglas, another Ayr resident who likes walking his dog on the beach, thinks that visitors from outside Ayr are more likely to leave litter behind without putting it in bins. “What happens is they will put it in a bag, but they won’t put in in a bin, so there is access for seagulls and then it’s scattered everywhere.”

This increase in the amount of litter on the beach during warmer holiday periods is also a long-standing problem that local authorities struggle with. John Morrison, a waste management coordinator at South Ayrshire Council says the council has limited resources but some measures have been put in place to maintain the beach in good standards during this time of the year.

John Morrison also said that raising awareness is an important aspect of the solution: “It’s just an awareness for people, making sure that they tidy up after themselves and obviously at the council’s part, make sure we’ve got an appropriate provision of bins for them to deposit their waste when they are leaving the beach”

Here is the full video report on the issue: