Gatherings on Exmouth beach are causing an unprecedented demand on waste removal teams in the area.

With pubs and cafés currently closed, more people are taking to the beach for parties - as seen yesterday (June 24) - and discarding empty bottles, cans and food packaging irresponsibly.

A spokesperson for East Devon District Council said: "The StreetScene team were out on the streets and beaches of Exmouth at 7am this morning (June 25), clearing up picnic and alcohol-related litter left behind from late night visitors last night.

"With the warm weather, and as pubs and cafes are still closed, we are experiencing unprecedented demand on our services to keep our streets clean and our bins emptied.

"With record levels of demand, and the number of visitors and amount of litter being generated, it's going to be a long hard summer for our teams.

"We are assessing all the ways in which we can work with partners to cope with the influx of people and the issues around beach drinking and parties as experienced yesterday at Orcombe.

"The team then started on their normal routines. We are currently emptying bins, upwards of five times a day and have more bins deployed on the seafront than we ever have before, but at times these are still overflowing.

"Some volunteers have been assisting us too, with litter picks on the beaches and we are very grateful to them.

"All of this could be avoided however if people using the beach did the right thing; help us in keeping our beautiful beaches clean by being respectful, clearing up their litter and taking it home if bins are full - after all, you managed to carry it there in the first place."