Thousands enjoyed Southend this bank holiday weekend, despite the weather not being as sunny as hoped.

The May bank holiday weekend, described as “the beginning of our summer” by the Happidrome’s Martin Richardson, although it was not as sunny as expected, still gave traders much to look forward to.

Mr Richardson said: “Now the junior school children have finished their Sats, they are just ready to enjoy the summer.

“This is when we are desperately in need of some good weather, but everything will be good whether it is sunshine or showers.

“Southend Council have really stepped up to the mark in getting the seafront ready for visitors.

“They’ve installed ten new temporary toilets which shows things are moving forward and the council realises what an asset it has on the seafront.

“The next thing we would like to see in the future is possibly a rain shelter though.”

There has been a hope for the weather to be sunny throughout the weekend, however, one trader says that they must be well prepared come rain or shine.

Colin Gray, director of Rossi Ice Cream said his business will not “react” to the change in weather.

He said:”Visitors will continue coming to Southend even if it is slightly overcast. We have been geared and ready for a busy bank holiday, but we made sure that we had the stock ready so that if the sun did come out, we would not be short of ice cream to deliver across the town.”

Sadly, busy periods have seen the seafront suffer greatly due to littering.

Southend Council asked visitors to be mindful of littering, and to either use the extra bins supplied or take their rubbish home.

Mark Flewitt, cabinet member for public protection, said: “Last bank holiday, our waste crews collected around twice the amount of litter as we would expect on a bank holiday, so we are making some adjustments this weekend.

“We are increasing the number of beach bins, making bin liners available on entry to beaches on the central seafront and using beach flags to help people find beach bins on Victoria Beach.

“We must stress the detrimental effect beach litter has on marine wildlife and the visual appeal of our seafront.”