A BEACH clean in Ardrossan turned into a lesson in safety as the Coastguard helped out local Brownies doing their bit for the environment.

The 1st Ardrossan Brownies organised a litter pick for Saturday afternoon at South Beach and a wonderful 15 bags of rubbish were filled.

And the Ardrossan Coastguard Rescue Team was deployed on incident prevention patrol at the two organised litter picks taking place in Ardrossan and Irvine.

The team first spoke to the Ardrossan Brownies and their adult leaders before they set off on a beach clean along Ardrossan South Beach.

The aim of their patrol was to educate the public on the dangers of maritime distress flares and ordnance which may have washed up on the beach.

Maritime flares could easily be mistaken for general litter by the untrained eye with the team having a variety of training flares to show the public what to look out for.

A Coastguard spokesperson said: “Litter picks and beach cleans are great community events but bring an increased risk of a washed up flare or suspected ordnance being found.”

The Brownies would like to thank the people walking by who commented and praised the girls.