THE owner of a Burnham-on-Sea guest house said she is 'delighted' after her business was the first in the town to win a green award.

Phoebe Pearce, 70, owner of The Round Tower Guest House, and her husband, Stuart, have been working to reduce their impact on the environment since Litter Free Coasts and Sea Somerset launched their business award in March.

The scheme aims to encourage businesses to make changes to their sewerage, waste, litter and drains so they have a positive impact on the environment.

Phoebe said she has made a number of changes to the guest house and she hopes to continue using them in the future.

"We are absolutely delighted to have received this award," Phoebe said.

"We have been working to get this award since we heard about the scheme in March.

"I thought it would have taken us 18 months to achieve this like Litter Free Coasts and Somerset said but here we are just over six months later and we have done it.

"There are a lot of steps you have to go through to get this award and we have been working really hard to make sure we do them all.

"We make sure we use environmentally friendly cleaning products so that we know what we are putting down our drains, we make sure that all of the toilets have the correct sanitary bins and everything which should be recycled can be recycled.

"And we have joined up to Litter Free Coasts 'Don't Feed the Locals' campaign which is something we are really behind."

Phoebe and Stuart were presented with their award by Tanya Cox, coastal communities officer for Litter Free Coasts and Somerset and Tatiana Cant, town clerk for Burnham and Highbridge Town Council, on October 22.

The guest house owner said she was inspired to make changes to her business after listening to a talk from Surfers Against Sewage at a town council meeting and is working towards getting the same status for her seafront tearoom.

She said: "After I heard the talk I realised that I needed to get back to business and stop wasting so much plastic.

"I have been very concious about cotton buds for a long time and about the bathing water quality in my town.

"I think it is important for everyone to be more aware of the impact plastic can have.

"I don't want to eat fish that has swallowed plastic and I don't think the fish wants to eat it either."