CLEAN UP THIS MIDDEN!
Glasgow vows to act over state of lane near 2014 Games venue
COUNCIL bosses have vowed to target fly-tippers near a 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games venue.
A lane is cluttered with broken bottles, dumped furniture and commercial waste.
Residents claim it is attracting vermin.
The lane is yards from the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre, which will be a venue when the city hosts the Games.
AFLY-tipping hotspot which is a magnet for vermin lies just yards from a 2014 Commonwealth games venue.
Broken glass bottles, large slabs of concrete, empty food packets, dumped furniture and commercial waste are piled up on Ardgowan terrace Lane near Kelvingrove.
Residents claim the lane is attracting vermin as well as criminality.
they say discarded furniture and other rubbish being dumped in the back courts of tenements is spilling on to the lane.
there are also fears that people are regularly scavenging through bins after two men were caught on camera emptying out rubbish bags and rummaging through them.
A number of tenements on Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street back out on to the lane. Many of these areas are strewn with rubbish. the lane has a sign suggesting it is an Environmental improvement grant recipient and another warning of the penalties for dumping.
it is yards away from the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre, which will be used as a venue during the 2014 Com - mon - wealth games, and near to the top tourist attraction Kelvingrove Art gallery and Museum.
Morgan Erskine, whose flat backs on to the lane, said she feels unsafe because of a spate of attempted break-ins and now refus- es to go out to the back.
the 27-year-old said: “Somebody tried to break in through my back window because it’s all overgrown and there’s loads of rubbish. it’s happened to two other people in my close. the lane is attracting the wrong sort oof people.
“there are also rats and foxes so it’s just a disgusting area.”
Ms Erskine said her hands are tied because the area behind her flat is owned by a commericial property. She believes the solution would be to create green space.
She said: “it’s about lazy owners not doing their bit. i like the idea of a nice space for the community that we could all keep tidy.
“i feel unsafe in my own home at the moment.”
Amjad Rafiq, 38, owner of nearby shop park Dairy, and Anderston resident, said the area was at its worst at the beginning and end of university terms as landlords gutted properties.
He said: “these people don’t have any respect for the area. i have lived here for 10 years and it’s just constant. it is like a dumping yard.
“You turn your back for one second and suddenly there’s big bits of furniture when you look around. there’s also been a really bad vegetation smell and i’ve noticed rats.”
Emily Wrack, 22, lives with six people in a top floor flat on Sauchiehall Street.
She recently took a photo
The areas are in an appalling state, a sure breeding ground for vermin
of two men scavenging through the rubbish below her bedroom window. She said: “it is horrible. i hate taking the rubbish out because you have to step over glass and lots of other rubbish.
“i was watching out the back about five days ago and i noticed two guys looking through the bins. they were tipping them out and left the place in even more of a mess.
“this is a student flat and a lot of people think we don’t put bins away properly or we are disrespectful but it’s not our fault.”
glasgow MSp Sandra White said: “the issue, which is of great concern to many and one which i have raised before, is that of back lanes and properties which are unkempt and generally an eyesore and a health hazard.
“You only have to look at the areas to see the appalling state they are in with rubbish strewn about,