POOL overshoes have been removed from a Malvern swimming baths as part of the campaign against single-use plastic.

Freedom Leisure, which runs the Malvern Splash, has stopped providing blue shoe covers from New Year's Day.

Customers are instead being asked to wear flip flops or go barefoot in the wet changing rooms or the poolside and additional checks are being put in place to ensure cleanliness is maintained.

Jess Chadderton from Freedom Leisure said: “The sheer volume of plastic overshoes we were throwing away wasn’t something we were prepared to have on our conscience, particularly when it can take some plastic up to 500 years to decompose."

Cllr John Raine, Malvern Hills District Council, said: “We are fully behind this development from Freedom Leisure which further supports our ambition to eliminate single-use items from our operations and become a low waste authority.”