I sent this article to the newspaper after I was fed up with people using a ditch beneath a small wooden bridge on the lower path in Overtoun Estate Woods as a rubbish dump. In fact, I found that this area overall was the worst frequently affected place in the woods by litter. As a result (even after the article was broadcast), people (mainly kids or youths) still kept on throwing litter into the ditch which meant I had to litter pick in the ditch a total of 4 times. For now, since the beginning of Autumn 2015, everyone has finally got the message but you never know how much litter will return once the good weather does. This is read as:
"Although the amount of
litter in Overtoun Estate
Woods has overall gone down
signifcantly (do text me on
07462167433 or email me at
jrainey94@gmail.com if you
see an area of the woods that
needs cleaning up), there
is just one exception on the
lower path between the green
gates at Campbell Avenue
and Overtoun House and that
involves the ditch over a small
wooden bridge.
The amount of litter thrown from
the bridge is absolutely horrendous;
apart from the huge amount of
bottles, cans and crisp/sweet packets,
there were small candles (placed
perfectly side by side on the bridge
to light up the night for the last few
days) that have sadly been kicked off
the bridge into the ditch along with
their wax split in what
seems to be tears of sorrow, maybe by
children or adolescents who appear
to have nothing else to do but make
the waste problem worse.
I mean what's the matter? Are you
actually scared of bins? That must
explain why you are so flamin' lazy!
Now I know you're reading this and
thinking, "well, you're a litter picker,
go down there and get it cleaned up!".
If you go down under the bridge, the
task to clear away the litter is not that
simple: the soil is quite slippery and
the gradient is very steep which won't
make my efforts to clean up the area
easy.
Now I am not going to ask random
strangers to strap me to a rope to
help me down the hill and lower a big
bucket for me to put the litter in (to
be fair, it would benefit me a lot!) but
there will have to be a safe way for me
to get down the hill without sliding all
the way down to the Gruggies Burn.
For now, please can you respect this beautiful but at times
dangerous part of the woods?
#CleanUpOvertounWoods"