COMMUNITY groups in Helensburgh and Lomond have been urged to work together to tackle the problem of marine litter on the area’s beaches – and not to wait for government help to do so.

A “litter summit” held in the Victoria Halls this week was told there was little prospect of a quick solution to the problem – but that that shouldn’t prevent local groups taking their own measures to address the issue.

Monday’s event was organised in the wake of community beach cleans held across the Helensburgh and Lomond area earlier this year – and amid mounting concern at the problem, which is particularly acute in Loch Long and the Gare Loch.

Among around 60 people present at the summit was Helensburgh community councillor John Tacchi, who said: “We’ve got to do this together and do it ourselves, because no-one else is going to do it for us.

“If we are to attract funding to the area, from whatever source, the community must form itself into a group. It must then decide what it wants to do and how it’s going to do it. Then you form yourself into a charity, and then you’re rolling.

“The Hermitage Park project grew out of a few people being challenged to go to the park for a clean-up one morning. From that has sprung a group which got just under £3 million in lottery funding.

“It became a joint effort with the council, but it was basically started off by about ten people in the town. Out of the hard graft of ordinary people came something remarkable.”

The summit also heard from the ranger of the Beachwatch Bute charity, set up in 1998 to keep the beaches on the Clyde’s second-largest island free of marine litter.

Sandra MacMillan said: “Bute is in a very bad location for marine litter – whichever way the wind blows, the island gets litter

“When I started working with Beachwatch Bute, the charity was a well-kept secret, and I realised that needed to change.

“We now have the backing of the biggest hotel on the island, and we work closely with the Marine Conservation Society, Keep Scotland Beautiful, SEPA and many other agencies

“Our template for a charity really works. You need a good, strong committee, with people from various walks of life and with various skills.

“A good beach ranger is essential to bring everyone together.

“You also need someone who can be trusted to go out there, day in and day out, and work on their own cleaning beaches.

“You soon see an amazing difference if someone is out there doing it every day.”

Helensburgh councillor Ellen Morton, who chaired Monday’s event in her role as Argyll and Bute Council’s policy lead for roads and amenity services, said: “More people turned up than we hoped for, and that’s an indication of how important an issue litter is.”

The meeting also heard from the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership and from Catherine Gemmell of the Marine Conservation Society, who encouraged the local groups present to take part in that organisation’s Great British Beach Clean from September 16 to 19 – a chance to clean beaches and to contribute to a national database on types and quantities of marine litter at the same time.

For more information, see www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch/greatbritishbeachclean.