A stretch of countryside near an Ayrshire village has been left plagued with construction waste for almost SIX months, a furious resident has claimed.
Disgusted Robert Steele claims greenery and farmland around Tarbolton has been scarred by thick blocks of polystyrene, which he claims are a by-product of poor practices by a firm hired by South Ayrshire Council.
The Tarbolton resident has called the council’s response ‘diabolical’ after fighting for SIX months to sort out the mess.
Robert has collected more than 500 pictures documenting the huge grey blocks of plastic littering the roads in and out of the village.
But council chiefs have denied ever seeing the polystyrene telling both Robert and an ombudsman probe they could see ‘no sign’ of the rubble.
The dad-of-one claims that the loads are flying off trucks whilst being transported to and from the village by a construction firm.
The former joiner says that the firm are carrying out insulation works in council properties.
When workers are finished for the day, the waste is bagged and thrown onto pick-up trucks.
But Robert insists builders are failing to ‘tie down’ the waste products allowing bags to pop open and materials to fly off onto the roads.
And as a council tenant, Robert has seen first hand workmen driving off with the unsecured load in the back of a pick-up truck, after they worked on his home last year.
Robert said: “It is an absolute disgrace, I’ve taken more than 500 pictures from August to February which show these polystyrene blocks everywhere.
“It is completely out of control. It is going into farmland where livestock are.
“It’s a complete eyesore, not to mention it is dangerous. I’ve heard of people having to swerve to avoid them when they end up on the road. It’s an accident waiting to happen.
“When cars hit the blocks they smash into thousands of tiny pieces and these are being found everywhere.
“The irony is that this is meant to be about saving energy for houses, making them greener. But we’re just littering the countryside and damaging the environment in the process.”
An initial complaint was launched by Robert in August last year with council officials responding a month later claiming they found no trace of the debris, after a senior official drove along the road between Tarbolton and Mossblown.
But Robert claims that on that same week around September 6, he walked along and took 150 pictures of the blocks.
Council chiefs then further denied any evidence of the polystyrene blocks when checking the road on December 9.
In a letter seen by Ayrshire Live from the SPSO to Robert, it details that council officials told how there was “no sign” of polystyrene packaging along the road.
The letter further details how council staff were unable to walk along the route due to safety reasons, and that they would have to implement “traffic management” to further investigate.
Robert’s complaint was dropped by the SPSO with the public ombudsman stating the council’s actions were “reasonable”, “under the circumstances.”
Robert added: “No one seems to want to take responsibility. All the agencies involved know about it now but still nothing is being done.
“It is diabolical how they have treated this. They have no idea what damage they are doing to the environment by continuing to ignore this.”
Councillor Julie Dettbarn told Ayrshire Live how she had previously dealt with Robert’s concerns last August.
The SNP councillor for the Kyle ward said: “I was given assurances that it had been dealt with. It is really regrettable that time is going to have to be put into it again.”
Rosemary Agnew, a spokesperson for the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman said: “Unfortunately, we can’t comment on individual cases.”
A spokesperson for South Ayrshire Council said: "We have been in contact with contractors to highlight the issue and any polystyrene by the roadside will be removed as part of our verge cleaning programme, which will include traffic management for the safety of staff.
"Any waste which is on private land, is the responsibility of the landowner.”
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