SLC to tackle litter problem head on
Spotlight on frontline medics
South Lanarkshire Council are to develop a litter strategy after councillors heard the UK is a “dirty” and “throw away” nation.
Councillors approved plans to start work on a new litter strategy for 2022 to 2027 last week with the final draft not expected to be approved until March 2022.
Environmental initiatives officer Emma Berry told the council’s environmental and sustainability committee on Wednesday, January 10, that the “main focus is prevention rather than cure”.
The strategy is set to propose a vision of a litterfree South Lanarkshire in line with the national litter strategy - Towards a Litter-Free Scotland - and the updated Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse.
Tackling fly-tipping, graffiti and dog fouling will be included as part of the strategy.
Deputy leader of the Labour group Councillor Gerry Convery (East Kilbride Central South) said he was “trying his best not to be negative” about the current litter situation.
However, he said: “I have seen this for 26 years. We have all these fancy ideas, we’ve done it for years.
“The bottom line is quite simple. I can see a massive deterioration in the state of South Lanarkshire as regards to litter and fly-tipping. It is getting worse and worse.
“We are a dirty nation. We are a throw away nation. We are in a crisis.
“It is not the community that is going to solve the problem.
“It is us putting resources where they are needed and making this a nice place to stay.”
Rutherglen South councillor Robert Brown said that litter and dog fouling had “escalated quite significantly” during lockdown and that dog fouling in particular had “got out of hand”.
He called for a “crash programme” for coming out of lockdown in a bid to “restore standards”.
Councillor Monique McAdams (East Kilbride West) added: “I am dying to get back out when we can actually do organised litter picks. They work really well and I’ll definitely have a team of people that will be looking to do that because I get people emailing me all the time.”
Clydesdale West councillor David Shearer said it was “absolutely critical” that the final strategy gets “buy-in from the public”.
He said: “Going forward, we need to try and prevent litter from happening rather than just reacting to the fact it has been dropped.
“How do we get that buy-in is the big question.” He also called for fines to be imposed on flytippers and that those responsible should be named and shamed.
Despite delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic in bringing the strategy proposal forward for endorsement, a range of research to inform the strategy - including mapping of litter bins, a flytipping heat map and awareness campaigns on social media - have already been undertaken.
Ms Berry said: “The main focus is prevention rather than cure so the proposal is the development of new plans, preventative action, education and community involvement and engagement.
“The strategy will cover the period 2022 to 2027 and propose a vision for a range plans, policies, actions and environmental initiatives that drive our commitment to preventing litter, dog fouling and fly tipping among other things.
“Each council resource will be required to contribute to the strategy through the creation of a litter prevention action plan that recognises the role that each resource can play.
“I wanted to finish by saying that the strategy needs your support, buy-in and involvement. We need all levels of council departments and elected members involved.”
Executive director for community and enterprise Michael McGlynn added: “Producing a strategy is one thing.
“I genuinely believe it is the process of producing a strategy, the publicity and how we try and engage with our communities that is about changing their behaviour and taking civic pride.
“There will always be exceptions to that. We hope to make some inroads to it.
“We all have a collective responsibility and we all need to buy into it.”
An NHS service that’s providing COVID care in the community in Lanarkshire has just marked a significant milestone, having seen 10,000 patients in 12 months.
The Acute Respiratory Illness Centre (ARIC) was set up in response to the pandemic last year as a way of seeing patients from East Kilbride and the surrounding area with confirmed or potential COVID in a safe environment, keeping GP surgeries and A&E COVID-free as far as possible.
Open 24/7, the ARIC is staffed by clinicians including GPs, a range of nursing staff and nurse practitioners and clinical support workers as well as a small team of doctors in training.
They’re seeing around 35-50 patients a day face to face, mostly people who are not getting better after self-care at home or whose COVID symptoms are worsening.
Patients are usually referred to the Centre by the COVID hub – a team of doctors and nurses who field calls and make decisions on the best place to send a particular patient for the right care.
Since last March, 30,000 calls have been handled by ARIC’s clinicians at the hub who invite patients to the centre for an assessment in person when clinically required.
Patients get a timed appointment slot and come into the building just before they’re due to be seen – the car park acts as a ‘virtual waiting room’.
Some patients, if they are very unwell, are then transferred from the centre to A&E: in January 187 people went to hospital from the centre.
Dr Mike Coates is the Clinical Lead for the ARIC.
He’s lived and worked in Lanarkshire for 21 years and prior to the pandemic, was a specialist GP in the area’s out-of-hours service and the drug and alcohol services.
Mike Coates regularly works 6pm-midnight, no mean feat for someone who has three young children including one with profound additional support needs, all of whom are being home- schooled by his wife.
Talking about the service provided by the ARIC and the patients they’re seeing, he explains that they’re mostly seeing people with ‘COVID defining symptoms’.
Some turn out to have serious illnesses unrelated to COVID-19 and there have been admissions to all specialities.
“A significant number are known to have COVID, some might have COVID and some turn out not to have it. The important thing is that anyone who needs to be seen, is seen.
“We’re seeing lots of elderly patients but equally a lot of very unwell younger people,” he says.
“The biggest challenge for us has been the volume of patients we’re seeing and the medical complexity of the cases. There’s such a vast range of symptoms that people present with.
“For us as GPs and clinicians it’s very good to still be able to see patients face to face, albeit it in difficult circumstances.
“We’re lucky also to have a fantastic team of dedicated staff, with a very varied skills set. For our Clinical Fellows, it’s an invaluable learning experience in primary care that will stand them in good stead as they further their careers.
“The whole-team aspect is the best bit of working in the centre and I mean everyone, from our incredible domestic staff to the volunteer drivers from Lifesavers charity, who bring patients without their own transport, to the centre.”
There is even a father and daughter team working in the ARIC.
Dr Richard Watson, a GP who is normally based at Craigallian surgery, in Cambuslang, is working at the ARIC alongside his eldest daughter, Alice, also a GP.
One day a week, he looks after his granddaughter while Alice works a shift in the ARIC and then they work the afternoon
shift together. “With the lockdown regulations, it is the only time that we get to chat in the warm,” Richard says.
While the numbers being seen at the centre are starting to decline slightly, Mike Coates says there is no room for complacency.
“We are still seeing a lot of very unwell people, every day of the week. My advice would be to stick to the government’s advice – be patient – and if we all work together to reduce COVID transmission by sticking to the rules, we can all get out of this sooner.”
The Lanarkshire ARIC is one of a number of similar centres all over Scotland, set up during the pandemic. It is located in Douglas Street community health centre, in Hamilton.
An East Kilbride band are looking forward to a brighter 2021 with the release of a brand new single.
Beafets released their new song, Open Letter, last month after almost a year of no new music.
The band consists of Adam McMonagle (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), John Loughran (lead guitar), Scott Taylor (bass guitar) and Aaron Johnston (drums).
After a hard year as a band in 2020, the band haven’t been able to meet up and play gigs like usual.
But being able to get back in the studio was a huge moment for the band, as they started to get a sense of normality again.
Frontman Adam said: “I think that the whole band would agree that the day in the studio was one of the best of the year.
“We recorded with Jamie Holmes, who has done a few of our singles, in Chem19 studio in Glasgow.
“Having worked with Jamie so much over the years, he really understands how we work and is able to guide us along to get the best results.
“Whenever we are with Jamie we always leave with a song that sounds so much better to what we walked in with.
“But it was the day spent with the band that felt really special I think.
“It was the first time we had all been together for so long, and we just had a really great laugh and enjoyed it all so much.”
The track has been in the works for some time, originally starting as an acoustic track before growing arms and legs into a full band track.
And it has received a lot of online attention as well, with blogs and celebrities picking up on the song.
Adam said: “This is probably one of our stronger releases, and it has done really well we think as well. The craziest thing was that Robert Carlyle tweeted the song out, which we never even knew was going to happen.
“We think what happened was that he was listening to an online radio station and the song was played and he liked it.
“He must have liked it a lot, because he tweeted out the link for the song the next day. It was quite surreal, he is a huge icon in Scotland.”
Going into 2021, the Beafets boys hope to record more music as well as finally get back to gigging.
They were meant to play a show just before lockdown in March 2020, but that has since been cancelled.
“I think gigging, in any capacity, is what all bands really want in 2021. It has been so long since we have been on stage.”