Beauty spot ruined by lockdown louts
Donna and her family launch clean-up at Boden Boo
An outdoor-loving mum who is set to launch an activities class for kids has lambasted litter louts who have trashed a local beauty spot.
Donna Thorburn, who has established Little Forest Friends to share her love of nature with youngsters, says Boden Boo has been left strewn with rubbish since the lockdown restrictions were eased two weeks ago.
The mum of two, who visits the area under the Erskine Bridge most days, revealed she and her family collected 22 bags of rubbish during a single day last weekend.
The rubbish was collected despite Land Forestry Scotland ( LFS) erecting signs asking people to take their rubbish home with them.
LFS had also closed the car park for the area and erected signs explaining staff would not be able to empty bins during lockdown.
Donna told the Express: “We have been down there every day to play in the woods and there had been no litter. That was until after the lockdown restrictions were eased and the place was wrecked.
“Land Forest Scotland had closed the site because their staff are working from home. They put cones on the main road and closed the car park. But people moved the cones and ripped down the barrier. The place was packed,
“We picked up 22 bags of rubbish from just two areas.
“And it’s not young people doing this, it is families. There were baby bottles, nappies, kids shoes, people just left all that. It’s heartbreaking.”
Donna and her husband Alex, together with children Alexa and Georgia, picked up the rubbish on the path at the woodlands, but say local dog walkers and other Team Up to Clean Up volunteers have collected a further 12 bags of rubbish from the beach.
The destruction has been a real blow for Donna, who was planning on launching her new Little Forest Friends initiative in the area in March.
The new business aims to facilitate all year round woodland play and give parents the confidence to take their children into nature and woodland environments.
The coronavrius pandemic has put Donna’s plans on hold but the 37 year old plans to continue to maintain Boden Boo for families to enjoy.
A spokesman for LFS said: “Littering is thoughtless, antisocial behaviour and we are always saddened when littering spoils a site.
“It’s especially frustrating when – as is the case with Boden Boo – alongside the covered bins there is signage in place asking people to take their litter home with them.
“With our staff only now beginning to get back to field work as they emerge from lockdown homeworking we were not able to get to the site to empty the bins.
“However, thanks to the amazing ‘Team Up To Clean Up’ volunteersand others - the site has been cleaned up and transformed.
“Their hard work saw about 25 bags of litter collected, and then removed by Renfrewshire Council’s waste services team.
“We’d like to offer our thanks to the volunteers and to the council whose efforts help keep Boden Boo an attractive place to visit.”
The car park at Boden Boo and other LFS sites remains closed and will only be reopened when instructed by the Scottish Government and maintenance and safety checks have been completed.
In the meantime LFS is advising people to stay local for exercise and to visit Boden Boo only by foot or by bike and to take any rubbish they have home with them.
There were baby bottles, nappies, kids shoes...people just left all that