AN angry councillor has slammed Morecambe Bay's cockle pickers for turning beauty spots into eyesores.

The shore at Bolton-le-Sands is strewn with rubbish left by the pickers - with up to 20 abandoned vehicles among debris cluttering the area.

And now Cllr Keith Budden is begging the pickers to clean their mess up.

"These people are earning good money from the cockle fields and I do not begrudge them that - but they should have the decency to clean up after them-selves," says Cllr Budden.

"Wherever you look there is rubbish such as old nets and old bags. It wouldn't take much to tidy up. It would take nothing more than two workers to gather the rubbish in every couple of days. They just leave their waste on the shore now - then the tide comes in and washes it all over the place.

"There are also vehicles abandoned there and it just has to stop. It is about time these people were forced to act in a responsible manner."