New Year Honours 2017: Isle of Man beach cleaner receives BEM

Bill Dale gives regular talks on the Isle of Man to raise the awareness of the problem of marine rubbish

The founder of an Isle of Man beach-cleaning charity has been honoured in the Queen's New Year Honours List.

Bill Dale from Andreas has received the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the Manx marine environment.

Mr Dale, who works as a journalist, established the charity Beach Buddies with the aim of making the island's coastline "the cleanest in Europe".

He said: "This honour recognises the work of about 7,000 volunteers who give up their time every week."

"Together we have collected more than 300 tonnes of rubbish from the beaches in 2016.

'False teeth'

"That's more than two million items including plastic bottles, fast food containers, fishing nets, tin cans and oil drums - once, we even found a set of false teeth".

Beach Buddies has helped to improve the safety of seabirds, wildlife and marine animals

Other Isle of Man people recognised in the New Year Honours include:

• Olga Gray from Douglas - appointed MBE for services to the Manx Community, after more than 50 years of voluntary work on the Isle of Man. Mrs Gray helped raise more than £1.5m for the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer Isle of Man.

• Phil Taubman from Castletown - appointed MBE in recognition of his services to motorcycling and the Manx community. Mr Taubman has acted as clerk of the course for the Manx Grand Prix motorcycle races and deputy clerk for the TT races.