THE owner of a surfing business has attacked the city council because 30 volunteers cleared broken glass, needles and 100 bags of rubbish from the beach after Pride.

Adam Chinery, who runs Brighton Watersports on Kings Road, says the group started the clean-up operation between the two piers at 9am.

He claims council cleaners didn’t arrive at this part of the beach until 2.30pm.

He said: “We were forced to act after families and children started packing into the hazardous beach hours before the city’s clean-up team got to the seafront.

“This was the messiest Pride ever. The only thing even comparable to this year was Fatboy Slim’s beach party.

“There were random needles on the beach and broken glass every few feet.

“By the time Cityclean got here, the beach was packed with families.

“They turned up at 2.30pm with four people and then two of them went off to lunch.

“Cityclean staff were just reacting to the situation and they weren’t prepared at all.

“By this point, we had already cleared three quarters of the rubbish.

“The beach was packed with families and children and Cityclean staff were walking around them picking up pieces of glass.

“We think about half a tonne of rubbish was swept out to sea at high tide.”

The group consisted of seafront businesses, volunteers found through Facebook and lifeguards.

They found four buckets worth of laughing gas cannisters, enough rubbish to fill 100 black bags, needles and broken glass.

Many Pride goers were left stranded late Saturday evening after Brighton Station closed its gates.

Because of this, hundreds headed to the seafront to sleep on the cobbles.

Mr Chinery said: “We expressed our concerns at the event last year hoping that something would change.

“But there weren’t enough cleaners, there weren’t enough bins and there weren’t enough toilets.

“Brighton beach needs to be looked at like the Pride venue it most certainly is, and cleaned up like one.”

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “I’ve been assured that Cityclean staff were indeed down between the piers clearing up on Sunday morning.

“It’s also true that volunteers and lifeguards were pitching in, and we’re extremely grateful for their efforts.

“We had around 200 staff out around the city clearing up and more than 100 metric tonnes of rubbish were collected.

“That’s the equivalent of 10,000 full binbags.”

This year’s Pride was viewed by many as the best ever.