Woman told to wait two days on council removing 12 needles from garden

Alan Pearson was visiting a relative in Templehall on Saturday, and was stunned to find 12 needles which looked like they’d been thrown over the fence from a public path nearby.

After a quick call to alert Fife Council to the hazard, the family was told that the needles would have to be left until Monday.

Alan said that the needles were scattered across the grass.

“There were 12 of them,” he said.

“We were helping a relative clear out the garage when we noticed them on the grass.

“She went in to phone the council, but they said no one could deal with it until Monday.

“She had to phone back on Monday morning.

“We worked around them for a wee while before we thought ‘we need to get them out of the way’ because we only had trainers on.

“We ended up picking them up with a pair of pliers and putting them in a tub because they were strewn all over the grass. It’s like someone had thrown them in one-by-one.

“They were scattered all over the place. You don’t expect it in your back garden.

“The worst thing is that they wouldn’t even entertain it until Monday morning.

“There were kids out playing nearby the whole time.

Beverley Shepherd, customer service team leader said: “A tenant called at the weekend to report that they had found a number of needles at the bottom of the garden while clearing the house to move. The needles had already been secured and were not presenting any immediate danger.

“At this point our advisor should have made arrangements for a specialist uplift to happen within 24 hours, rather than asking the resident to call back again to instigate that process. We apologise for the inconvenience and will review our process to make sure that the procedure is clear for all our customer services advisors. I note that the tenant did call back on Monday morning and the needles were promptly removed.”