BEACHCOMBERS are likely to find more crisp packets than shells on a North-East beach.

Twenty volunteers bagged 644 crisp packets in a two-hour sweep of a quarter of Saltburn beach, in east Cleveland.

"We just do not know where they all come from, although you do get loads of children down on the beach," said Jackie Taylor of the Saltburn 500 Club which, together with local surfers, has adopted the beach.

The clean-up squad also recovered 133 straws and food trays and 325 pieces of polystyrene packaging, as well as a door, among thousands of items of rubbish.

Miss Taylor said some of the rubbish that was gathered could indicate that the tide is bringing back in what the sewage outfalls were supposed to be taking out; while some waste may be discharged from passing ships.