AN ASSEMBLY member will join hundreds of volunteers for a beach clean up in Flintshire.

Hannah Blythyn, assembly member for Delyn, will join the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and hundreds of volunteers during a Great British Beach Clean event at Talacre on September 20.

The Great British Beach Clean is the biggest annual beach clean-up and survey in the UK and is organised by the Marine Conservation Society.

The event is now in its 26th year and MCS hopes to beat last year’s record-breaking year with even more beach cleans organised and more volunteers getting involved. Last year’s Great British Beach Clean saw volunteers remove close to 500kg of litter from Welsh beaches. In total, just short of 25,000 litter items were picked up along the 5,355 metres of coastline surveyed.

The assembly member will join the citizen science project to help clear and survey the litter found on the beach of Talacre. Data collected by volunteers from over 25 years of MCS-led Great British Beach Cleans has been instrumental in the introduction of the 5p single-use carrier bag charge, the ban on microbeads in products like shower gels and toothpastes and further campaigning for single-use plastic policies to be put in place.

Ms Blythyn said: “I am pleased to be back on my local beach in Talacre to once again support this year’s beach clean. It’s good to see so many people taking part year on year and taking action day after day in our communities to tackle litter and the problem of plastic pollution.

"The event and activities are open to everyone so I’d urge as many people as possible to pick up a litter picker and get involved – small actions from all of us can make a significant difference.”

Gill Bell, Wales programme manager for the Marine Conservation Society said: “It’s fantastic to see that local AM, Hannah Blythyn will be joining us at Talacre to support our Great British Beach Clean; it’s really important for decision-makers to see how much litter, especially plastic, makes its way on to our beaches.

"We hope that Hannah’s attendance at the Great British Beach Clean will encourage local constituents to join us for an eye-opening day on the beaches of Talacre. It's vital that we all continue to work together to stop the tide of plastic in our oceans.”

This year, for the first time, the Great British Beach Clean will be sponsored by the Ocado Foundation, the charitable arm of the online supermarket. The foundation will be sponsoring the event to the tune of £300,000 as part of the Environmental Pillar of its ‘Ocado Way 2020 Vision’.

Constituents looking to join the Great British Beach Clean can sign up to volunteer at www.mcsuk.org/greatbritishbeachclean and be part of the biggest and most influential fight against marine litter in the UK.