Courtesy Barrhead News
By Pippa Smith
Reporter


GRAFFITI and litter scattered behind Neilston’s Main Street has been branded ‘a real bone of contention’.

The lane, which runs behind the village’s Killoch Bar and is frequently used by families to walk to and from Neilston Primary School, has been subjected to broken glass, litter and graffiti sprayed across the fencing.

And residents have slammed the vandalism as a ‘disgrace’.

John Scott, of Neilston Community Council, said: “This has always been a bit of a problem – it has been a real bone of contention.

“We highlighted this as being a problem area around seven or eight months ago and one of the problems was cars being dumped [near to the lane] as well.

“They got taken away and the place was cleaned and tidied up – it looked really good when this was done.

“The cleansing department at East Renfrewshire Council were hoping to rearrange the wall, to make such that it wasn’t so inviting for kids to sit on and hang around.

“The trouble is, the under-age drinkers would rather smash the bottles than put them in the bin, but it comes and goes.

“The clean up in the area seems to have deteriorated but I think this is probably associated with the school holidays.

“The previous graffiti was quite obscene, before it was cleaned. I don’t really know what the answer to it is.”

A spokesman for East Renfrewshire Council told the Barrhead News that the authority was aware of the graffiti problem, and that a team would be sent out to deal with the issue as quickly as possible.

He added: “It is extremely disappointing when our communities are blighted by graffiti and we would encourage residents to report incidents as soon as possible.

“Once we are informed about an area of graffiti, our removal team will attend to deal with it.

“Our community wardens also carry out increased patrols around known hot spots to try to deter this type of behaviour within our communities.”