[Laura Moran of Glasgow City Council Neighbourhoods and Sustainability has an overall remit of coordinating cleansing services on the Southside: her and her team regularly meet with Pollokshields Community Council and others.]
“I have been informed by a neighbour that you might be the person who may be able to deal with a problem that is not getting solved by other means.
I live at the junction of Terregles Ave and Kildrostan St, and have done since 2008. Straight across the road from us not more than 20 meters from my living room window, my bedroom window and my children’s bedroom window is the sad site of 14 recycling bins. 7 general recycling, 6 glass recycling, 1 clothing.
I have tried complaining via the 4 councillors for Pollokshields about the state of this site with fly tipping and missed collections, and thankfully the site has been kept a lot cleaner with more regular collections although fly tipping still goes on and we now have to suffer evening bin collections sometimes as late as midnight, but I feel GCC are missing my point completely. When I moved here in 2008 there was only 5 bottle banks and 3 recycling bins all sat neatly facing onto Darnley Rd. Now we have 14 bins, 7 general waste, 6 glass and 1 clothing.
This site is far too big for a residential area. Even when the bins have been emptied and the site is tidied up the place still looks like a dump it resembles part of the Polmadie depot. The bins take up an amazing 20 meters and they stretch around the corner on to Kildrostan St facing into the flats, shops and cafe which has outdoor seating looking on to them. When you drive around the corner from Darnley Rd the first thing you see is a wall of ugly bins No where else in the South Side has this amount of bins in the one place except for Morrisons car park. In adding all these bins GCC have effectively created a dumping ground slap bang in the middle of a quiet residential area. The bins themselves are an eyesore the paint is flaking off some of them are bashed and one has a missing lid and they are all filthy with algae from the trees they rest under it truly is a depressing sight to see.
This is a residential area with 44 flats all looking out onto this site. It is supposed to be a conservation area, there is lovely listed buildings, nice green spaces and lots of little shops and cafes and it could be considered quite picturesque if it wasn’t for these bins.
Apart from the general ugliness of these bins one of my main concerns is the likelihood of this site putting home buyers off should I decide to sell my home especially if its been a day or 2 since the last collection and there has been a spike in fly tipping. Had it been now that I was buying I doubt I would have bought this flat knowing I would have to look at this dump every day.
I would like to see this site taken away all together however I believe recycling is important and I am not unreasonable so perhaps GCC might consider reducing the amount of bins down to 4 or maybe 6 bins at most 3 glass and 3 general, kept in the middle of the Terregles Ave elevation facing out onto Darnley Rd not on Kildrostan St. with regular collections and monitoring for fly tipping.
I have been down this road before with GCC, back around 2014,15 GCC added three more bins here, again stretching around on to Kildrostan St. I got in touch with Councillor David Meikle who was able to organise a meeting between himself, myself, and someone, probably from your department sadly I cannot remember his name however he did come out with another chap I had dealt with Gary Beecham perhaps he might remember the meeting and the other chaps name. I pointed out my concerns about how big the site was getting and the problems the bins were causing and he could see my point of view and within a few weeks the extra bins were taken away. These extra bins have been added stealthily over the past 3 years and the past 3 years have been the worst for fly tipping.
Perhaps you or a colleague could come out and take a look at the site and I think it would be obvious when you see the site that it would be unfair for residents to have to look out at such a spectacle.
I look forward to your response.
Kind Regards,