Turn The Tide Portishead's litter-picking equipment gets vandalised

The incident is thought to have taken place between October 1 and October 2.

Turn The Tide Portishead is a community group who tackle marine pollution through regular beach cleans.

They also help Gordano students achieve their Duke of Edinburgh Award.

They had installed litter-pickers, bags and hand sanitiser at Sugar Loaf Beach, which formed part of a 2-minute beach clean board. It was hoped that this would encourage visitors to do their bit.

Posting on Facebook on October 2, a spokesperson from the group said: "Nobody wants to write this post. Last weekend, we launched our new 2-minute beach clean board at Sugar Loaf Beach.

"Today, all of the litter pickers from the board lay broken on the floor, deliberately damaged beyond repair.

"If you don’t know who we are, we’re Turn The Tide Portishead - a community group (not even a charity) run by local volunteers with the aim of tackling marine pollution through regular beach cleans and projects locally including working with Gordano to assist Duke of Edinburgh Awards for the students.

"Everything we do or buy is from donations, cake sales and contributions from local businesses in exchange for our time hosting litter picks.

"But for some reason, between last night and lunchtime today, someone has decided to intentionally cause damage to our board and the litter pickers in its first week.

"These obviously cost us to replace. If anyone has seen anything in this time frame, please do let us know. If you regularly visit this beach (sea swimmers we’re looking at you fabulous people) or pass this board often, please help us keep an eye on it and look after it.

"If you’d like to join us for a litter pick and/or show your support, we’ll be outside the Lido Cafe at the Lake Grounds on Sunday, October 29 at 10:30am.

"Our tagline of ‘Do your bit for Portishead’ has never been so apt."

Turn The Tide Portishead has been approached for an update into the situation.