SO, another Gower beach has won a national gong.

Port Eynon scooped a silver award in a new family beach guide, as reported in yesterday's Evening Post.

Last month, Gower's Rhossili was judged best in Britain.

There may be a temptation among some to scoff at these types of awards.

This week's family beach guide was put together by a sun cream company, while June's awards were organised by an ice cream brand.

Clearly a bit of summer publicity ain't no bad thing.

But I'm not knocking the efforts of Nivea and Cadbury's Flake 99. Drat, I've mentioned them!

This part of South Wales is certainly blessed with magnificent beaches.

But some wouldn't be so magnificent without the early morning litter pickers and volunteers who cart tonnes of rubbish from them every month.

Wonderful

Mucky beaches are not ideal for tourists, and tourists bring in much- needed money.

Judith Methuen-Campbell, of the Penrice Estate, which owns Oxwich beach and car park, employs three staff to clean the beach by hand every morning.

"There is no other way of dealing with rubbish," she said. "We would like to encourage people to use the bins. We think Oxwich is wonderful. Of course it needs to look good."

She added: "We like well-behaved and happy tourists."

The National Trust owns three- quarters of the Gower coastline, and part of Rhossili and Three Cliffs Bay. Last year, trust volunteers put in 8,572 hours of service, much of which was spent looking after the beaches.

For those who like their stats, volunteers removed 60,000 litres of rubbish (roughly 4,000 black bin bags) from Rhossili beach in 2008 and 2009.

National Trust property manager for Gower, Sian Jones, said she expected this summer to be no different.

"Most of it is sea-borne litter — plastic, fishing debris, toothbrushes and an incredible amount of cotton buds," she said.

"People generally are very good with their litter and will take it away."

Asked why it was important for beaches to look good, Mrs Jones replied: "Everybody is a tourist somewhere. When people come to visit you, you take them to special places."

There was a right and wrong way to clean a beach, though, she said. Using a machine can ruin the naturally- occurring strand line, which in turn can prompt sand to blow away.

She said Swansea Council gave the trust £300 a year towards the cleaning of Rhossili beach.

It rankled slightly, she said, that the authority was handed the Great British Beach Award last month, although she added it was up to the award organisers who they presented it to.

Criticism

Council-managed beaches at Langland, Caswell, Bracelet Bay, Limeslade and Port Eynon are litter-picked daily throughout the year.

Criticism does get levelled at councils about dog ban enforcement, but a couple of days without cleaning, and Swansea beach, in particular, would look a right old mess.

Do you leave bottles, cans and plastic bags there? Why?

Further west, volunteers spruce up Llanelli beach three times a week, Pendine Community Council litter picks at Pendine beach, while Carmarthenshire Council cleans up Burry Port's two beaches. The main stretch of Cefn Sidan, a managed beach, is litter picked daily from May 1 to September 30.

Golden sands certainly attract the masses. Swansea Council estimated tourists and visitors spent £300 million during 2008/2009; Carmarthenshire Council's 2008 estimate was a whopping £332 million.

Varying levels of sand have been a big issue at Port Eynon in recent years, but clearly a certain cosmetics company thinks the beach is a sight for sore eyes.

richard.youle@swwmedia.co.uk