VOLUNTEERS are cleaning up the worst-affected beaches along the South East Cornwall coastline, after the worst storms at sea in decades brought tonnes of rubbish and seaweed ashore.

At Seaton, where a large chunk of the sea defence wall was smashed by the high spring tides, gale force winds, and rough seas on Saturday last, Cornwall council's Cormac team continue to 'shore up' the gap left with boulders and rubble as a temporary measure. Surveyors and engineers are working on a permanent solution which the council has confirmed will cost in the region of £500,000.

Meanwhile, the Friends of Seaton Valley together with other community volunteers gathered on Sunday morning to help clear a large amount of rubbish which had been deposited by the waves, onto the right-hand side of the beach close to the river by the bridge.

Martina Williams, chair of the Friends, said it had been a quick 'word of mouth' exercise with 22 people turning up.

'It was a good community effort and we collected 23 bags of rubbish, mainly plastics,' she said. 'Other stuff such as wooden pallets, tyres and even a council bin were put in a heap ready for Cory to take away. Sadly a dead baby seal was discovered washed ashore on another part of the beach, among the rubbish, which Cory dealt with.'

Mrs Williams said the Friends are now considering, with community involvement, turning the scrubland just above where all the rubbish came ashore into an amenity area, which will blend in with the local seascape.'

The coastline along Whitsand Bay, which took a huge battering from the storms, is also littered with large amounts of debris.

Claire Wallerstein of Rame Peninsula Beach Care, which has in its area the six beaches of Tregonhawke, Polhawn, Freathy, Boiler Beach, Sharrow and Cawsand Bay, is appealing for people who walk the beaches to take along a plastic sack, fill it with rubbish and take it away.

'It would be a huge task for us to clear all six beaches,' she said, 'but every sack of rubbish taken away, is less going back into the sea again.'

Claire said the storm had been an opportunity to see just how much rubbish is in the sea.

'It was like the ocean being sick and spewing up everything that pollutes it onto our beaches. There is so much plastic everywhere,' she added.

'Also a lot of sand has disappeared. Tregonhawke currently resembles the rocky surface of the moon, but in time the sand will come back.'

The Rame team had carried out a beach clean on the Friday of the stormy weekend at Tregonhawke as part of their monthly clean ups, only for the beach to become littered again within a couple of days.

Claire is asking all volunteers to wear gloves, not to pick up glass, and to take care on the slopes leading down to the beaches which have become slippery due to the weather.

'Please don't carry more than one bag per person up the cliffs. Every little thing is a great help to us,' she said.