An Arbroath mum has spoken about having to clean up a used syringe from a council-owned car park.
Jeanette Irvine, 46, who has two girls aged four and seven and a young grandson, found the syringe in North Grimsby car park.
She tried to call an Angus Council helpline but, receiving no answer after waiting for half an hour, was forced to remove the syringe body herself and put it in the bin outside her home.
The needle was not attached when the syringe was found.
She said: “It’s just pure and utter laziness.
“It is disgusting the idea of having a kid pick that up. It needs dealt with. It’s a public car park.”
She was so worried about the syringe, which was found around five minutes’ walk from a primary school, she took the matter into her own hands.
“I picked it up because I didn’t want anybody else to find it,” she said.
“My grandson is obsessed with motorbikes and he’s always looking for them around the car park.
“The seven-year-old would know not to pick something like that up, but not the younger ones. They would take it.”
She said she presumed the syringe had been used for injecting illegal drugs.
“There are a lot of drug users in the area,” she said.
An Angus Council spokesman said: “Recent demand for our ACCESSLine has been extremely high.
“We are currently looking at solutions to reduce call-wait times and apologise for any inconvenience.
“Where someone finds a discarded needle or syringe our advice is not to touch it but to always report it to us.”
