AN action group says Redcar seafront resembles a landfill site after a £30m regeneration project.

Friends of Redcar (FRED) say rubble left by flood defence contractors has turned the beach into an eyesore.

FRED met with contractors Birse Coastal Construction, the Environment Agency and Redcar & Cleveland council to complain about masonry on the beach – but said they claimed it was washed up by the tide.

FRED chairman Carl Quartermain said: “The debris next to the coastal defences is not tidal wash.

“Much of it is large boulders protruding from the sand and immovable. Between our group and the council we have shifted over 30 tons of this stuff already. It is Birse’s responsibility to move it because it is broken masonry buried there by them.

“They should hold their hands up and bring in diggers and clear-up teams.”

He said FRED presented Birse and the council with samples of masonry containing polypropylene fibres which were used in the construction of the sea defences and which kept turning up on shore.

Varieties of rubble which FRED claimed were from the destruction of the last seafront were also highlighted, and which he said were now re-emerging due to the movement of the sea.

The Northern Echo contacted Birse parent company Balfour Beatty, the Environment Agency and Redcar & Cleveland council yesterday, but they all declined to comment.

Mr Quartermain added: "This problem is the same in both the Coatham and Zetland areas of our beach.

“Our beach now resembles a landfill site.

“We have requested that a channelled trough of at least 6x6 and probably wider, be dug into the sand along the Coastal Defences and that the sand be sieved and returned - rubble free."

He said at the meeting that Birse claimed the rubble was “inert” from an environmental point of view and said that the sand would not be removed to be cleaned. The company did offer to do at most a couple more sweeps of the beach in light of the complaint.

Mr Quartermain also expressed his disappointment at the lack of concern about the “unsatisfactory” clean-up and said the council should to more to resolve the problem.

“Our coastline is our greatest asset and what’s happened with the beach is inherently bad for the town, tourism and residents." he said.

“I’ve used the beach for 25 years and for the best part it is now an unusable hideous eyesore along the coastal defence steps.”

The £30m new sea defences and seafront regeneration are a joint project between Redcar & Cleveland Council and the Environment Agency.