AN INDUSTRIAL sieve is being used to clean one of the Llyn’s best-loved beaches.

In March, Storm Emma washed away two feet of sand and uncovered tonnes of buried rubbish at Llanbedrog beach.

The National Trust has since co-ordinated a major clean-up operation using heavy machinery, an industrial sieve and countless litter-picks by staff, volunteers and the local community

Andy Godber, Llyn Countryside Manager, said: “It has been a challenging couple of months. At times the beach was literally glistening with sharp glass. We’d pick it all up and a few days later, after another high tide or poor weather there would be more, which as you can imagine was very disheartening.

“But the support by the local community in particular, has been invaluable and really lifted our spirits and strengthened our sense of resolve.”

As the rubbish was buried some time ago, it was difficult to establish the extent of the issue. Local contractors were drafted in several times with heavy machinery to remove over 600 tonnes of sand, which had metal and broken glass mixed in.

This was then sifted through a special industrial sieve on-site and thanks to this technology they have been able to return 450 tonnes of litter free sand, back to the beach.

Andy added: “Unfortunately nature has not replenished the rest of the lost sand as quickly as we’d hoped and as such it won’t be safe enough to return the beach huts to the shore this season, as they would be likely to flood at high tides."

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