Beautiful park was left like a landfill site

[GlasgowMan]

Beautiful park was left like a landfill site
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5055029.html

THIS was the shocking state of a top Glasgow park after one of the hottest days of the year.
Joggers, dog walkers and people on their way to work met a sea of rubbish strewn across Kelvingrove Park.
Parts of the park opposite the city's top tourist attraction – the refurbished Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum – looked like a landfill site with broken bottles, drink cans and litter and overflowing rubbish bins.
Park users and politicians condemned council chiefs for not sending in bigger hit squads to clean up the mess as people flocked to the park in sizzling temperatures on Wednesday.
It is an offence to drink in public parks and warning signs are clearly displayed on all the entrances at Kelvingrove.
Yet picnickers were clearly flouting the rules with empty beer cans and wine bottles making up much of the rubbish.
Elaine Sneddon, 43, a marketing manager from Kelvinside, visited the park with her two children Gio, 5, and Elena, 2 and was one of many appalled by the amount of rubbish.
She said: "It's disgraceful, I think tourists would be quite surprised if they were visiting the museum and came into the park.
"If you've got young children and they are running around tripping on glass it could be very dangerous."
"People are not supposed to drink alcohol but how do you police that without causing a riot?"
"You go overseas and you see parks there which are are well kept.
"It could be much better kept and they should clean it up earlier, but people should also take more responsibility."
Deborah Ritchie, 35, of Hillhead, regularly goes jogging in Kelvingrove and was astonished by the scene yesterday.
She said: "It's disgusting. The council should have people patrolling all the time and they should be issuing on-the-spot fines for littering.
The council obviously doesn't have enough workers and is not doing enough litter patrols.
"It can't cope with the volume of litter."
Mark McLaren, 32, a graphic designer of Kelvinbridge, said: "There's no real excuse for the park being left like that.
"People shouldn't have to walk through that amount of rubbish."
And drama student Isaac Closs, 19 of Anniesland, added: "The people creating the rubbish should take more responsibility for their own litter."
Nationalist MSP Sandra White called for more action from the council.
She said: "Glasgow is unfortunately the litter capital of Europe and it doesn't do us any good.
"I do think the council should have more people in the parks and streets and should fine people for dropping litter."
"You can't condone dropping litter, but the council has got to do more.
Bins are overflowing and are being left for as long as 48 hours before they are emptied."
MSP Pauline McNeill said: "The parks are going to be full of people and you have to make provision for that.
"But there's really got to be a 50/50 responsibility between the council and park users."
The Kelvin MSP added: "The crowds must have been enjoying the weather, but there should surely have been a quicker clear-up."
In the two main police beats which cover Kelvingrove there were just 26 public drinking offences recorded in 2005/06, as well as five incidents of people being drunk and incapable.

Publication date 21/07/06