I wrote this article after I finally made the long awaited attempt to go in the Gruggies Burn ('Burn' means small river in Scotland) in just the right conditions in dry weather because of persistant rains. What was even better was that the weather was good after I came back from a week-long holiday in Benidorm, Spain with my mate Liam Davidson and my parents Christine and Ralph Rainey. it read:
Heading: "Stop littering in our beautiful burn"
"After coming back from
a holiday in Benidorm on
Saturday August 18th, I was
certainly surprised to see it
was good sunny day in the
area and the water levels of
the local Gruggies Burn were
low (despite seeing forecasts
on television about rain and
gales in Dumbarton while I
was in the Spanish resort).
This meant it was a good excuse
for me to go into a section of the burn
located between the path for National
Cycle Route 7 and the Silverton Post
Office on Alclutha Avenue.
Apart from recovering litter
from the cycle path itself and a
section of the burn located between
East End Park, Park Avenue and the
bridge crossing from the cycle
path to Silverton Avenue, I recovered
lots of rubbish that had been fly-
tipped in the burn for many years,
including small steel beams, a
rake, a vehicle exhaust, part of a
wooden table and the glass of a
mirror.
It is likely the litter was dumped by
youths drinking and the
historically fly-tipped items
may have been thrown in by either locals
living beside the burn or by other
members of the public in other areas
of the burn itself like the A82 or the
Alclutha Avenue bridge crossing the
river.
We need to raise awareness about
respecting this beautiful burn and
about how difficult it was for me to get
in and out of the burn without getting
deep water into my boots and soaking
my socks!
Some passers-by did give me
good advice:
A female cyclist from Whiteinch,
Glasgow, said that there should be
more bins along the cycle path to stop
me from making the long walk to the
nearest available bin in East End Park
from the cycle path bridge crossing
the burn.
And a middle-aged man who
turned out to be living very close to
the bridge said I should be using a van
to transport the large fly-tipped items
to landfill or the tip."
The e-Mail to both the Lennox Herald and Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter was cut down to fit in with the page size; here is the actual e-Mail:
"To the following papers i sent this email to,
After coming back from a week long holiday to Benidorm on Saturday 8th August, I was certainly surprised to see it was a good sunny day in the area and the water levels of the local Gruggies Burn were low (despite seeing forecasts on Analogue Television about rain and gales in Dumbarton while I was in the Spanish city) which meant it was a good excuse for me to go into a section of the burn located between the cycle path for National Cycle Route 7 and the Silverton Post Office on Alclutha Avenue.
Apart from recovering litter from the cycle path itself and a section of the burn located between East End Park, Park Avenue and the bridge crossing from the cycle path to Silverton Avenue (see the supplied before & after pictures of the described section), I recovered lots of rubbish that had been flytipped in the burn for many years including small steel beams, a rake, a vehicle exhaust, part of a wooden table and the glass part of a mirror. It is likely the litter featured in the before & after pictures was dumped by youths drinking (and possibly having sex, judging by the fact I found a condom in the burn!) and the seemingly historically flytipped items may have been thrown in by either locals living beside the burn or by other members of the public in other areas of the burn itself like the A82 or the Alclutha Avenue bridge crossing the river.
This article ultimately is to raise awareness about respecting this beautiful burn and about how difficult it was for me to get in and out of theburn without getting deep water into my boots and soaking my socks! Oh, and I posted my results onto social media using the Hashtags #CleanUpYourArea , #Litterati and #CleanUpYourRiver.
Some passers by did give me good advice:
1. A female cyclist from Whiteinch, Glasgow said that there should be more bins along the cycle path to stop me from making a long walk to the nearest available bin in East End Park from the Cycle Path bridge crossing the burn.
2. A middle-aged man who turned out to be living very close to the described bridge said I should be using a van to transport the large flytipped items to landfill or the tip. Well there's always the option of using Kickstarter to help get me a decent van, isn't there?
Sent from my iPad
Jonathan Rainey
from Silverton, Dumbarton
Mobile: 07462167433"