Councillor is amused by litter pick jibe
A Perthshire councillor was asked if he was a convict when he was spotted picking up litter in his constituency at the weekend.
Carse of Gowrie councillor Angus Forbes remembered being amused by the incident as he reflected on his solo litter pick last Saturday.
The Scottish Conservative politician told the PA he was particularly struck by how many disposable face masks he found lying abandoned by the roadside.
He said:“I had an hour free on Saturday between constituency work so decided to do a bit of litter picking at the big layby on the Invergowrie bypass. This is an area we have picked before and it’s always very dirty as lorry drivers and travellers drop rubbish from their vehicles right next to the bins.
“I spent 50 minutes filling two bags and could easily have filled 10 times that. Most of the rubbish was from carry out coffee shops and fast food restaurants - as people are forced to carry out they seem to drive to local laybys and consume their food there.
“Why they can’t get out their car and walk 50 metres to one of the many bins is beyond me. There are more bins there than anyplace else and most of them were empty yet the ground was literally covered in rubbish.
“One of the things that struck me was the sheer number of disposable face masks, I counted 33 of them in the two bags I collected. I’ve never seen anything like this before.
“One driver shouted at me and asked if I was doing this as community pay back or an alternative to prison, which I found very amusing.
“I much prefer group litter picks and am looking forward to the day we can get back to doing them - it’s much more enjoyable when you can chat to others.”