Council leader has said communities have “let themselves down” over litter on Southsea Seafront over the summer.
A report presented to Portsmouth City Council’s cabinet examined the pressures of summer 2025, which saw high footfall at Southsea beach and shifts in the working patterns of council staff.
Higher visitor numbers brought more litter. The report states that “the public increasingly do not take their rubbish home with them but leave it for PCC to manage”, with overflowing bins attracting seagulls.
“Whilst additional bins are deployed across key areas of high footfall this is a challenging area to support and keep to the high standards of cleanliness expected by the public despite the teams working extremely long hours in very hot conditions.”
Fire service call-outs were also prompted by hot coals being placed in standard bins. Looking ahead to this summer, the report suggests exploring the possibility of electric BBQs around Canoe Lake and Southsea Common.
Councillor Steve Pitt, leader of the council, said that while Portsmouth could be cleaner, neither the council nor its transport contractor, Colas, were to blame.
“People dump rubbish in their own city, the place where they live, the place where their families live, where they bring up children.
“That is what is at fault, not council or councillors or council officers, it is down to those people needing to take on a sense of responsibility.”
He said it was a “misfocused” shame that people talk about the “council letting them down when it’s the communities letting themselves down by littering in the first place”.
“It’s something we see particularly on the seafront where the more bins we put out the more bags of rubbish appear.”
He questioned how someone could carry multiple drink cans to the beach but “can’t be bothered to take a carrier bag home with the empty cans”.
“Those behaviours that we need to keep working to try and change because that shouldn’t be accepted by anybody.
“If the sink is overflowing, don’t buy more buckets, turn the tap off – well residents this one is down to you, if you see poor behaviour call people out”.
He reminded the chamber that not everyone has a back garden or a safe, private space to have a BBQ at home, and that all visitors’ needs should be considered.
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