Volunteers work to transform Glasgow lane after fly-tipping

Willowbank Lane, in the city’s Woodlands, has been a hot spot for fly-tipping for several years.

But that could now change after Fiona Hart, a volunteer at the Woodlands Community Development Trust (WCDT), says she was contacted by a resident who wants to see the area tidied up once and for all.

READ MORE: Glasgow man demands action on fly-tipping 'catastrophe'

Fiona Hart (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest)

Fiona explained: "It’s been an ongoing problem for years.

"I’m a volunteer at the Woodlands Community Development Trust and we do litter picks and we’ve started lane groups so residents can come together to sort out the issues of fly-tipping and try and make the lanes a nice space and create a bit of community around them.

"One of the residents at Willowbank contacted me last year and said 'how can we address this because it’s horrendous', it’s one of the worst lanes in the whole area by a long streak so that’s when I got involved at the start of this year."

A bin on Willowbank Lane which is believed to be filled with meat products. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest)

Since the start of this year volunteers, with help from Glasgow City Council, have cleared the lane twice after items such as mattresses, sofas and a full bathroom were dumped as well as health and safety hazards including needles and dog waste.

New gates have also been installed as well as signs making residents aware of the council's bulk uplift service. 

However, within weeks, the lane was once again filled with items from homes and commercial properties.

READ MORE: Rogue firms blamed by Glasgow residents for fly-tipping shame

Fiona believes there are issues with both residents using the lane to discard rubbish as well as people travelling from outwith the area.

She said: "When people do dump things, if possible we call it into the council, because the arrogance of it, people will actually dump things with their addresses on them so we name and shame because how are we going to correct the behaviours if we don’t have some enforcement going on.

"The pictures are from within a few weeks of it being entirely cleared.

"It’s just incredible the volume."

She added: "We should all as a part of the community be taking ownership of these spaces and trying to make them better.

"It’s a big health and safety issue with some of the stuff that gets dumped.

"We’ve found needles in there, dog waste, it smells like a toilet.

"This is an owned space, it’s where people live, and people can’t abuse it in this way."

In September last year, the WCDT held a festival, called Woco Festival, which took place in several locations.

Nearby Rupert Lane hosted a market, and Fiona believes after some work, similar events could be held on Willowbank Lane in the future.

She said: "It was really a fantastic opportunity to see what a lane can be.

"We’re going to have this festival again probably every two years and at some point, I would like to see multiple lanes being part of this because they’re actually nice spaces where people can just come out their back doors and do things together.

"We’d like to make it a place where tenement residents can actually come together and plant, or do other things, just create a really nice space rather than looking out of their windows at mattresses and sofas, builders waste, there was a whole bathroom dumped there.

"There’s a real opportunity here, the lanes are an opportunity for people to get together and to get to know each other, get to know their neighbours and create a community."

You can find out more about Woodlands Community Development Trust HERE.