South Lanarkshire Council's litter clearing project on roads in and around East Kilbride will continue this week.
The work will involve two midweek night-time closures (8pm-6am) on the A725 East Kilbride Expressway as follows:
- Monday March 15 – inside lane closure eastbound
- Tuesday March 16 – inside lane closure westbound
Following a similar exercise on rural roads around Hamilton in February, almost ten tonnes of litter and dumped rubbish was recovered, and last week’s first phase of the current project on the A72 Garrion Bridge to Lanark 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, but 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 BBQ 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.
Details of the remainder of the council's weekend clean-ups will be shared on the council’s social media channels each Friday in March.
