Clydesdale treated like "glorified waste bin"

It is money that could have been spent elsewhere, had people simply not chosen to drop their litter on our roads.

In the space of two weeks work on Clydesdale’s rural roads, council teams collected 674 bags of rubbish from 20.75 miles of road.

In total, it weighed in at 3.18 tonnes – a sizeable chunk of the eight tonnes collected across the region in the month-long project across the South Lanarkshire area.

More than 1700 bin bags of litter were collected in total. Piled one on top of another, the bags would reach higher than the tip of Tinto Hill and weigh more than an average primary school – full of children.

It also cost the council more than £42,000 for additional staff, temporary road restrictions and to dispose of the rubbish.

Teams spent all of March, including weekends, clearing 42 miles of roads and verges in and around Clydesdale, East Kilbride, Larkhall, Stonehouse and Strathaven.

David Booth, the council’s executive director of community and enterprise resources, said the programme was the most significant yet – and also the most disappointing.

He said: “South Lanarkshire is a fantastic and unique mix of urban and rural. As a place to live, work and visit, it offers so much.

“Yet, there is a stubborn few who have no qualms about treating our communities like glorified waste bins. It’s incredibly frustrating to see the figures that have come out of this last month of work – almost double that of the same project last year and costing tens of thousands of pounds.

“Every penny and hour spent is money and time lost to the council and its communities. There is simply no excuse for this type of selfish and irresponsible behaviour.”

The council’s anti-litter campaign, launched last year, urges people not to be that ‘eejit’ and has seen the authority work with schools, community groups and the wider public to increase awareness.

David added: “Let’s make no mistake; this is not about major dumping of waste, individuals avoiding using amenity sites or any other such excuses – this is pure and simple littering.

“I’m particularly angry at the throwaway culture that seems to be prevalent in many who use our rural roads. So much of what was collected was bottles, cans, food containers and wrappers, all of which can be disposed of easily and, in the majority of cases, recycled.

“I want to say sorry to all of those who were inconvenienced by the restrictions caused during the clean-up and thank them for their patience during what should be an unnecessary task.”

In Clydesdale, work started on Belstane Road, Carluke and, over the following two weeks, progressed to the B7011 Brownlee Road, Law; Airdrie Road, Carluke ; A73 Lanark Road from Auchenglen Road; A72 Lanark Road – Garrion Bridge to Lanark Main Street and the B7078 Douglas to Crawfordjohn cut-off.

Penalties for those caught dropping litter in public range from £80, while the Illegal dumping of waste carries fines from £200.