Seven members of staff from a north Norfolk housing association have spent a day helping to clean up a local beach – and removed over 30kg of plastic, fishing twine and other rubbish from the sands and groynes.

The seven, from Victory Housing Trust, volunteered to take part in the clean-up at Walcott beach with North Norfolk Beach Cleans, part of the Marine Conservation Society.

The Victory employees were taking advantage of a scheme in which the Trust allows staff to take up to three days a year off to undertake community projects.

Jo Todd, community development officer at Victory, said: 'It is so important to keep our wonderful beaches clean, not just because tourism is so important to north Norfolk, but also because of the damage that plastics and fishing twine can do to wildlife and the environment.

'The recent storms have brought a lot of rubbish ashore from elsewhere, and the team really enjoyed tackling the task of making the beach pristine again. We really value the opportunity to do something practical to help the community; everyone worked really hard, and we were staggered at just how much rubbish and detritus we collected.'

Victory is interested to hear about community projects which could benefit from its staff volunteer days. If you have a project which might be suitable, please contact Jo Todd on 01692 502496, or at jo.todd@victoryhousing.co.uk