‘Forgotten’ grass patch sees overgrown weeds and rubbish dumped

Normally, Fife Council maintains the walkway between Chapel Road and Broom Road in Kirkcaldy, with the exception of some areas which are left to grow for ‘rewilding’ in order to encourage biodiversity.

However, as lockdown went on, Alan Greig noticed that some weeds reached up to four feet tall.

The giant weeds had threatened to spill over into his garden, and some items are now being flytipped in the area, using the overgrown weeds to hide the rubbish.

Alan said: “I’ve had to cut about 150 feet worth of weeds back every month or six weeks with a petrol strimmer.

“I just get on with it. I’d rather it looked betterm but it’s having to do it every time.

“We had quite a few trolleys and things like that left.

“There’ are a lot of dog walkers, and the dogs run up into the long grass. The owners just walk on and leave whatever mess is there.

“We have a litter picker who comes along and does an excellent job – but he can’t collect everything in a barrel, just small litter.

“If it was country-meadow type flowers, I could understand but it’s just weeds.

“I’ve no problems with encouraging wildlife, but you just don’t let weeds grow wild, you’ve got to manage it differently.”

Stephen Duffy, Fife Council team manager said: “The grass areas next to the access paths from Chapel Road and Broom Road are being cut back to give a clear passage for pedestrians.

“However surrounding slopes have not been maintained during the Covid-19 pandemic due to a shortage of available staff.

“It is our responsibility, along with the residents of Fife to keep Fife clean but the dumping of rubbish has put pressure on staff, reducing other maintenance required across the kingdom.

“Mr Greig’s fence backs onto an open area and we appreciate that he has been maintaining this as we work through the pandemic.

“However, we will deploy staff to check and remove unwanted litter from this area.”