An illegal Travellers’ camp on the outskirts of Dundee has been left a hazard to public health, a horrified local resident says.
Gwen Cargill said it was heartbreaking to see the Dalclaverhouse area, where she has lived for nearly 50 years, left in such a shocking state.
Rubbish and rubble has been dumped on and around Charles Bowman Avenue without any thought of the environment, and some of the former has been blown into the grounds of the local school.
Worst of all, she said, is the excrement canine and human left behind by the Travellers on open land and in an old farm building they used as a toilet.
Mrs Cargill, 70, was speaking after exercising her own dog in the Claverhouse industrial estate for the first time since the Travellers left.
“They moved in last month but they had their own dogs which were running wild and I didn’t want to go there in case these dogs attacked my dog,” she said.
“When I saw the mess of the place today, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were piles of rubbish and rubble and a lot of the rubbish was scattered in all directions with no attempt to put it in bags or dispose of it responsibly.
“Some of the rubbish has blown into the playground at Mill o’ Mains Primary, so pity the children playing there.
“There’s food and other waste, and by that there is excrement. Council workers have been working very hard trying to clean up the place, but they’ve not gone into the old farm building and I don’t blame them.
“Rats will be attracted and goodness knows what diseases they will carry. There’s also building rubble left in piles which wasn’t there before.
“It looks like the Travellers have been doing work on people’s driveways and have just dumped the debris here.”
Mrs Cargill said the council workers she saw trying to clear up the mess had an unenviable task, but it was wrong that they had to be called to do the work in the first place and that the citizens of Dundee had to foot the bill.
“It’s not right that the people of Dundee can’t get the services of the cleansing workers that they pay for because they have to go to clear up the mess left by the Travellers who behave so irresponsibly,” she said.
“It’s also wrong that the council tax payers have to pay for the clear-up of the mess caused by the Travellers when I’m sure that money could be much better spent.”
The Travellers left Charles Bowman Avenue on Monday after being ordered to move by the city council, but they went only a few hundred yards away to land off Jack Martin Way on the opposite side of the A90 Dundee-Forfar road.
Around 30 caravans were still there yesterday, along with some vehicles bearing the name of contractors.
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said: “We are taking legal action against the unofficial site at Jack Martin Way. The council is arranging for the area at Charles Bowman Avenue to be cleared.”
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