A Scottish island is to follow the example of the Isle of Man’s Beach Buddies charity.

The Isle of Arran is now linked to the Isle of Man to share knowledge and statistics on beach cleaning, with plans to shortly announce the creation of Isle of Arran Beach Buddies.

Fifteen Beach Buddies officials and students from University College Isle of Man (UCIOM) travelled to the island to meet volunteer beach cleaners on Arran.

The UCIOM team, from the college’s employability skills group, took part in three beach cleaning sessions during their four-day visit, which was largely paid for by their own fund-raising events on the Isle of Man.

The Steam Packet provided free ferry transport for Beach Buddies’ truck and a mini bus carrying the volunteers.

The team stayed in hostel accommodation at Lochranza on the northern coast and were greeted on their first evening by a group of stags grazing on grass at the water’s edge just a short distance away.

The Manx team found that the Isle of Arran, with a population of only 4,600, does not have potentially large numbers of volunteers for beach cleaning. However, its marine litter problems are not as severe as in the Isle of Man.

’Geography plays a big part in this,’ said Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale.

’Arran is in the middle of what you might call a "large lake in the sea" and surrounded by very large land masses that collect most of the plastics and other materials.

’The Scottish mainland is only a short distance away and Kintyre is really close, so Arran is very much protected - unlike the Isle of Man where we receive large amounts of marine litter from not only the Irish Sea, but the entire Atlantic Ocean.

’The Isle of Arran, therefore, is very much protected from marine litter, simply by its geographic position, leading to relatively small amounts of plastics and other materials reaching its beaches.

’But that’s not to say Arran doesn’t have the same problem as everywhere else in the world. We found plenty of small plastics and items from the fishing industry identical to those we find at home.’

Beach Buddies will advise the new Isle of Arran’s volunteers as the new group gains momentum.

Mr Dale hopes that a presence in the Scottish islands will potentially help to spread the word further afield about the achievements in the Isle of Man recently recognised by former Prime Minister Theresa May for having ’the cleanest beaches in Europe’.

’This is the first time we have given official permission to another group to use the name Beach Buddies and, judging by the number of other countries making contact, this definitely won’t be the last,’ Mr Dale added.