Elderly East Kilbride residents hit out at council over 'health hazard' bin shed

Residents had nowhere to store their trash which ended up spilling out onto the street

Disgusted elderly residents of amenity flats in East Kilbride have hit out at the council saying overflowing bins at their block are a "health hazard".

Fed-up resident Margaret Watson, 79, described the long-running issue with waste collection at Kinross Park in Brancumhall as "diabolical" and took the complaint to Green Councillor Kirsten Robb.

She claims following months of issues, which included home carers using their bins to dispose of medical waste, a former tenant filled the bins with bags of rubbish before moving out which caused the rubbish chute to become blocked.

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Thirty-seven residents then had nowhere to store their trash for 10 days which ended up spilling out onto the street.

Margaret claims bin men have failed to uplift rubbish on several occasions - including after one resident died - causing the bin store to overflow.

She told Lanarkshire Live: "We're having a terrible, terrible time with having rubbish picked up from our bin shed.

"One of the tenants moved out and his family loaded the two big bins with black bags which left us with absolutely nowhere to put our rubbish. And when the bin men came they opened the door, looked at it and said 'well we're not emptying that' and shut the door again - and they've never been back.

"They should have came last Thursday and they never went near it.

"When I say it's diabolical I mean it, it's a health hazard. When the carers come in they throw their bags in as well, so you've got bags with dressings all hanging out. It's just a nightmare."

She added: "We've tried everything with South Lanarkshire Council, but cannot seem to get through to them.

"We previously had a run in with the bin men when they refused to take away bags when one of the tenants had died. It took three months of calling to sort it out.

"We can't police the bin shed."

South Lanarkshire Council confirmed they cleared the bin shed last Wednesday.

Councillor Kirsten Robb has been helping residents at Kinross Park for a few months with "on and off" issues with waste.

She said: "It’s always great to meet residents to understand the issue more and try and find solutions together.

"Whilst the fly-tipped waste has now been removed and the waste chutes unblocked, we’ve highlighted a few ways the council, residents and community alike can work together to prevent it happening again. And importantly, to get things sorted quickly if it does.

"Thank you everyone for highlighting and addressing the issue now and preventing it into the future."

South Lanarkshire Council were contacted for comment.

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