'Makes me want to move': Renfrew residents hit out at amount of litter

Elaine Haughey said many people shared her concerns about the current state of the town, which she believes is being neglected by the local authority.

She told The Glasgow Times: "I've been living in Renfrew for about 30 years and I can't actually believe how bad it has got since the Covid pandemic, it's absolutely unbelievable.

"I've told my friends that it makes me want to move and they feel the same way because there are a lot of places that look dumpy and grubby.

"When you come into Renfrew, all you see is graffiti all over the electrical boxes, as well as litter and weeds.

"It's such a shame because this used to be a nice town."

The areas around Blythswood Retail Park and King George V Playing Fields have been identified by local residents as among the worst for litter in the town, with plastic bottles and cans being the most frequent type of rubbish seen lying around.

Elaine takes part in the Team Up to Clean Up campaign, which encourages members of the public to take part in litter-picking, but believes council chiefs should make street cleaning a higher priority.

She said: "I think everybody should play a part in not littering and helping clean up their area but I think there is now too much reliance on the goodwill of locals.

"I joined Team Up to Clean Up but I don't think it touches the surface. I'm literally picking up litter every single day on the same routes and you just think, 'This is relentless'.

"I'm all for Paisley getting developed but more people use the streets than they do museums or town halls, so I think Renfrewshire Council should be prioritising keeping the streets clean."

A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: "People littering, graffitiing or carrying out any anti-social behaviour is a blight on our communities and we commit significant resource to cleaning this up so that we all can enjoy clean, inviting places to live, work and visit.

"Our award-winning Team Up to Clean Up campaign is a joint initiative between the council and the community where we provide volunteers with the equipment they need to carry out litter picks to improve their neighbourhoods and we remove the collected rubbish afterwards. It also supports them to access funding for environmental projects, as well as providing a sense of community for volunteers that benefits their mental health and has created friendships across our towns and villages, and enhances our street cleaning, gully cleaning and school education programmes.

"The core message in our campaign is that each person in our community has the power to make a difference. As well as supporting our valued volunteers, we work closely with schools to raise awareness with pupils of the impacts litter and graffiti has on communities, wildlife, and the wider planet.

"We're proud of what we have achieved working with thousands of volunteers in Renfrewshire and, ideally, we will reach a time where people do not litter or graffiti our neighbourhoods, but until then we will continue to work closely with our communities to challenge and change behaviours and create a Renfrewshire that we are all proud to live in."