Clydesdale road litter cleaning this weekend

Work which started last week on the A72 Garrion Bridge to Lanark will continue, as well as on the stretch of the road from the bridge to the Brookside Garden Centre.

Also included tomorrow are Coalburn Road, Lesmahagow; Belstane Road, Carluke and Ayr Road from Canderside to the Garrion Bridge.

Each road will be reduced to one lane between 9am and 4pm to ensure the safety of the workforce on the roads and verges and drivers are advised to prepare for potential delays or to consider alternative routes.

Following a similar exercise on rural roads around Hamilton in February, almost ten tonnes of litter and dumped rubbish was recovered.

Last week’s first phase of the current project saw the collection of much more.

Councillor John Anderson, chairman of the community and enterprise resources committee, said: “Once again we apologise for any delays this work might cause. It’s very disappointing that it’s needed at all.

“Most of the litter we are collecting in this campaign has been disposed of by irresponsible drivers and their passengers, who seem to think that roads sides are an appropriate dumping ground. There is also the scourge of those not just dropping fast-food wrappers or crisp bags, but large volumes of illegally dumped rubbish.

“When we undertook a similar exercise in and around Hamilton in February, we collected everything from tyres to an old toilet and even potentially dangerous items such as gas canisters and oil cans.

“There is simply no excuse for this type of selfish and irresponsible behaviour which blights our environment and requires thousands of pounds of council funds to clear up.”

The council is supporting Keep Scotland Beautiful’s ‘Give your litter a lift’ campaign which aims to encourage all road users in Scotland to respect the shared environment and do one simple thing to keep litter off our roads.