Extra council staff are working in the Helensburgh area to deal with additional litter from visiting tourists, a council official has said.
Angela Anderson, chair of Plastic-Free Helensburgh, told a meeting last week that the town was becoming ‘pretty overwhelmed’ with rubbish on busy days.
She also asked for dedicated recycling bins to be made available in the town, but Argyll and Bute Council network and standards manager Hugh O’Neill said that while he would investigate, costs could be prohibitive.
The matter was raised during public question time at a meeting of the council’s Helensburgh and Lomond area committee last week.
Ms Anderson said: “Helensburgh Community Council and ourselves have regular litter picks and beach cleans, but on busy days we are pretty overwhelmed with rubbish.
“Bags are put beside the bins and the only thing that causes rubbish to scatter are the seagulls. We just wonder if there is a plan to put in bigger, better bins over the weekends or bank holidays?
“There is no provision for recycling along the front. Having spoken to a number of visitors, they would be happy to do that if it was possible. Quite often, rubbish is separated.
“Also, we are looking for plastic-free town spaces and have a number of businesses signed up. We are going to have a survey and tackle takeaways on single-use polystyrene.
“I would also like to commend the council on the clear-up work they do every morning after the bins have been full overnight. It just seems a contrary policy to do it that way.”
Mr O’Neill replied that extra staff were working through the summer from 2.30pm to 8pm, covering Helensburgh, Luss and Duck Bay.
“This is with a view to picking up excess waste, getting put there by more and more people attending. We are actively trying to look at that,” he added
“Recycling is a matter I will have to deal with away from the meeting. We need to be careful as that will come at a cost for us, but I will speak to our operations manager.”
Cllr George Freeman added: “There are major problems with litter, particularly at Luss and Arrochar. If we are talking about additional resources then clearly communities in my ward would want to be involved in talks.
“I think we should be waiting to review the effect [the additional staffing] has, and then coming back at the end of the season to consider whether there is a need, and whether resources are available to provide additional bins.”
Cllr Lorna Douglas welcomed the extra staff, but said: “A couple of constituents have raised concerns on bins in Helensburgh, as they are overflowing and the constituents have seen them really bad.
“I am really pleased to hear about the extra staff. I know that at Luss it is hugely improved but there are still issues on bin designs.
“If people pack things in a bag, then they cannot put the rubbish in a bin. I know this has come up before about the design of the bins, but it would be good if it could be looked at again.
“This is particularly for areas like Luss. I also know there is a machine that can clean the streets – is there any plan to have it cleaning this area?”
Mr O’Neill said a street cleaning machine was shared with with Cowal area but was on its way to Helensburgh.
“Unfortunately it broke down last year as it was about to come to Helensburgh and if it does that, we don’t have the resilience we once had,” he said.
“Programmes are exceptionally tight just now. The machine is at Dunoon at the moment, but will be coming back to Helensburgh.
“There are other councils in the same boat as us, running with a reduced fleet in order to comply with budgets.
“We also have issues just now regarding materials and stuff to come through, with some parts coming over from Germany, so it is taking a bit longer than usual.”
Cllr Graham Hardie then asked: “I know some of the car parks in the national park, like Tarbet, have big signs up saying that if a bin is full, you should take your litter home. Would that be encouraged along the front of Helensburgh?”
Angela Anderson, who had earlier asked a public question on the same topic, responded: “A lot of people are coming by train and are reluctant to make that journey with their litter. They are also reluctant to put rubbish into hot cars.
“I agree absolutely that people should take their rubbish home; they should have less to start with. But if we are running a county with a tourist-type economy we have to provide for that.”
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