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Two children were found passed out on a beach among broken glass, “rancid” armchairs and empty booze bottles following a late-night party.
Volunteer litter-pickers discovered the teens asleep on the weather-beaten furniture on the coastline along Central Parade, Herne Bay.
The boys are thought to have attended a rule-breaking party with at least 10 others the night before on the stretch between the pier and the Bandstand.
Catherine Francis-Yeats, the organiser of the monthly Bay Beach Clean, says broken vodka bottles and empty beer cans had been left strewn across the beach.
“We were all shocked. One phoned their parents to collect them,” she said.
“There had been a party – or several – on the beach. There was obviously a lot more of them earlier on.
“There was a kid asleep in one of the armchairs, and it was really, really disgusting because the chair was rancid and looked like it had been abandoned months ago.
“They were drinking so much vodka and beer and got so smashed they were sleeping in dangerous, abandoned furniture. There are risks of hypothermia – it’s pretty cold at night.”
The volunteers also removed large firework casings, traffic cones, nails and shopping trolleys found scattered on the beach during the litter pick at about 10.30am on Sunday, November 1.
Ms Francis-Yeats says the scene was one of the dirtiest she has seen since she launched the monthly litter picks on the coast more than three years ago.
“Not only are the kids not social distancing, but they’re also being pretty destructive,” Ms Francis-Yeats added.
“I found the situation utterly frustrating that we were clearing up around these kids who were sleeping.
“There had been some big burned areas, where loads of wood had been burned and children spent a good hour picking nails out of the piles because once they rust, they’re invisible in the shingle.”
And during their litter pick at the beginning of the month they found the Victorian-style seafront shelters along the promenade nearby had been targeted by vandals.
The incidents have prompted town centre councillor Andrew Cook to call for the structures to be converted into kiosks.
He believes that, by doing this, it would put a stop to the vandalism, which he estimates costs Canterbury City Council hundreds of pounds to repair each time.
“Those shelters are always getting vandalised,” the Conservative said. “People are loitering in them and causing trouble in them.
“The sooner we do something with them, like turning them into kiosks and shops, the better, as far as I’m concerned.
“It would make it an interesting place to go to. I appreciate they’re nice buildings, so why don’t we keep them and give them a purpose?
“They could be anything from little takeaway shops to stalls like the ones in Spanish seaside areas that sell leather goods or jewellery.”
