Clean-up operation carries on at seafront and city pier
The clean-up operation continues at Sunderland seafront after last week’s Beast from the East weather.
Rubbish, plastic, driftwood and dead sea life have washed up on Sunderland’s beaches, with a clean-up operation now well under way to tidy the areas.
Colin Gowland, 52, from Whitburn, was walking on the beach at Roker with wife Lysa on Monday when he saw the mess left following the storms ,and says it would take a “small army” to clear the debris away.
He said: “There is such a mixture of plastic in these pictures it is unbelievable – amongst all of the driftwood and fishing nets and ropes etc the plastic is the most prominent item. As has been reported, it is not just the large items but the small broken down tiny plastic grains and polystyrene bits that kill ocean life.
“We pick up plastics etc whenever we can, but on this occasion there is such an abundance it would take a small army to clear it.
“I have in the past found a blood-filled syringe on the shoreline and got rid of it in my sharps box at home.
“I am aware that there are groups organising to help the beach clean-up but the beach is littered at present and the amount of tiny polystyrene bits is immense.”
Video footage sent in by reader Brian Priest showed the full extent of damage to historic Roker Pier, with railings left bent and some even swept into the sea.
The city council has said the damage to the pier will be fully assessed once heavy sea conditions allow so that repair work can be scheduled.