AS always, hot summer weather has brought thousands of trippers to Southend’s beaches for the day.

Once again, they have left a reminder of their presence – seven miles of garbage that leaves the seafront looking like an extended waste tip.

Southend Council, along with other authorities across the country, has been battling the problem for decades, yet it persists remorselessly.

In the end, the only satisfactory answer amounts to changing people’s habits and mindsets. Trippers must somehow be persuaded to bin their rubbish, or take it home.

Yet, how does anyone get the message through to the sort of people observed by Paul Thompson, chairman of Southend Seafront Traders – trippers who chuck rubbish on the road, while actually leaning on a bin?

Since anti-litter campaigns have failed so completely, Southend Council is left to do the only thing it can, and organise an overnight clean-up.

There is one other option, as yet untried. The council could impose a draconian policy, monitor trippers using wardens and CCTV cameras, and fine anyone observed in the act of littering the beach.

But a tough policy of this sort risks sacrificing the welcoming atmosphere so important to Southend’s popularity. The seafront could end up feeling like a police state. In the end, the big clean-up seems the least worst choice.