Christmas Day revellers who plan to gather for a traditional beach party were today asked to keep the area clean for the holiday.

Keep Bermuda Beautiful said people who lived around Elbow Beach in Paget were helping the charity to put out extra trash bins on the beach.

A spokesman for the public works ministry said that an earlier announcement that volunteers from the nearby St Paul’s Anglican Church would co-ordinate donated free parking at the Coral Beach & Tennis Club’s Horizons property had been issued in error and did not take account of stricter public health measures introduced because of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

KBB earlier appealed to anyone who visited the beach to stick to Covid-19 health and safety regulations to ensure a safe event.

Visitors to the beach were asked to use caution and stick to group “bubbles”.

The Christmas party at Elbow Beach, a family-friendly tradition for decades, was not held in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and problems with access because of storm damage to access points.

Stairs down to the beach, destroyed in a hurricane, have since been replaced by the public works ministry and the charity said people might well turn out for Christmas this year.

KBB said its volunteers will be back at the beach on Boxing Day to take bags of trash and trash cans up the steps to the car park for parks department staff to remove.

KBB said as much as a ton of trash had been generated in previous years – mainly glass bottles and aluminium cans.

The charity appealed to people to take their trash home if trash cans filled up.

KBB added volunteers were welcome to help at the Boxing Day cleanup from 10am to noon.

A spokeswoman added: “Christmas Day at Elbow is the closest thing Bermuda has to a ‘leave no trace’ event, which is even more surprising since there are no real hosts or organisers.

“Beach-goers have shown great respect for Bermuda’s beauty and when there are plenty of bins, no one litters.”

But she added: “The Department of Parks cannot be expected to do it all, especially during the holidays, so KBB and willing volunteers have stepped in to help.”

This story has been updated to reflect an alteration in the original statement that included parking at the Coral Beach & Tennis Club’s Horizons property. That will not be available because of stricter coronavirus safety regulations.