Resident’s fury over eyesore Nimmo Avenue grassland has become a waste dump
Tommy Wright, assistant Callum Davidson and St Johnstone Community Trust’s Atholl Henderson, with Finlay Watson, Kyle Aird, Jamie Thomson, Duncan Mortimer and Zak Kinnear A Perth woman says an overgrown area full of dog waste, discarded toys, bicycles and empty glass bottles behind her Hillyland home is making her life a misery.
Jennifer Brown, of Nimmo Avenue, originally got in touch with the PA in September last year about the unsightly area.
As a result of the complaint, a community payback team was dispatched to cut the long grass, shrubs and clean the area up.
But, less than six months later, Jennifer claims the problem still persists and has called for further action to be taken .
She told the PA that the path desperately needs a bin for dog waste.
Jennifer went on to explain: “In the summer, our kitchens are inundated with flies because of all of this.
“And then there’s the cherries from the trees, and the leaves that nobody will sweep up – plus the dogs’ dirt – it’s terrible.
“In 2015, Councillor Dave Doogan came up here, walked the whole area with me and promised
me that in winter it would all be seen to. He did nothing, absolutely nothing. He promised me a dogs’bin.
“When I phoned up the council, I was told there was a dog bin at the shop and we weren’t getting one here on the path.”
Jennifer added she’s fed up of hearing that “there’s no money to do anything”when making appeals for assistance.
She continued: “Councillor Elspeth McLachlan said there would be money in April - but the birds will have nested then and trees will all have grown.
“It’s no good coming in April.
“We’re incensed by this. It was lovely lighting up Norie-Miller Walk, it was beautiful, but you can’t be spending money on things like that and have the people of Perth living beside this, out working and then coming home to this. I sweep up the whole time.
“It’s come to the stage now where it’s got to be cleaned out, properly, and there has to be money spent on it, because the council have neglected it.
Jennifer, who’s originally from Thurso but has lived in Perth for more than 40 years, added: “When my bairns were little, 30 years ago, all the bairns played in here.
“It had wee bushes and it was cleaned every year, and all the bairns ran about in it. You couldn’t put a bairn in here now. It’s so sad.
“I’ve been here for 44 years. This is the worst I’ve seen it and nobody will listen to me, no one will come and do it. I sweep up the whole time.
“City of Culture my a***. Would Councillor Ian Miller like to live beside this?”
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council said: “We received a complaint about the landscape at the rear of Nimmo Avenue and responded to the complainant to advise them that we would trim back the vegetation.
“However, we are unable to remove it completely as it is an appropriate feature of the slope, provides valuable tree cover and also a degree of privacy to properties at the base of the slope.
“A litter pick has been scheduled for later this week at the site.”