Bantham is one of the beaches the council will no longer clean

South Hams Council wants to make budget savings of �500,000 in order to keep next year's council tax rise below 5%.

A series of cuts have been agreed by the council's executive, including stopping involvement in the Blue Flag and Rural Beach award schemes.

The council will also stop cleaning beaches between November and February.

In addition, the council has reduced its overtime budget and stopped contributing to renting space at the annual Devon County Show.

We get visitors all the year round and the beaches will become really polluted Sally Pound, tearoom owner

It has also agreed to stop providing bathing and boat-laying buoys at the district's beaches, with the exception of Challaborough, Bigbury and Bantham, where they are legally obliged to do so.

Halting beach cleaning during the winter months has come in for criticism from some South Hams residents.

Fisherman Tom Hill, from Slapton Sands, said: "In the winter there are rougher seas and more rubbish gets washed up onto the beaches, so that is the most important time to clean them.

"They should be cleaned all year round. We pay our council tax for things like that."

Sally Pound, who runs a tearoom and stores at Torcross, said: "We get visitors all the year round and it will become really polluted.

"People don't like to see that and they won't come back again."

'Big picture'

But the Conservative leader of the council, Richard Yonge, said he believed private beach operators, such as those at Blackpool Sands and Bantham for example, should pay for more, and if they wanted Blue Flag awards they should fund them themselves.

"Now I hope we are more strategic in our approach to tourism," he said.

"We do the big things and leave the detail to others and that is in line with what the South West Tourist Board wants councils to do.

"They want us to paint the big picture and leave the tourism operators to do the detail."

The council currently cleans 23 beaches on the South Hams coastline.