Bill to clean up Dundee Travellers’ sites costs £13,000

From the Courier

The bill for cleaning up two former Travellers’ sites in Dundee will cost the taxpayer £13,000.

Piles of rubbish were left at two patches of land in the Claverhouse area of the city after Travellers set up camp there.

There were 150 tonnes of waste left on land off Charles Bowman Avenue when Travellers were evicted, only for them to set up on a site off Jack Martin Way.

Last week the 30 caravans were moved on from that unauthorised camp as well, with rubbish at the site including broken TVs, used gas cylinders and two abandoned caravans.

Alan Stewart lives on Grampian Gardens, close to the Jack Martin Way site.

He said: “It’s a lot of money and it could have been better spent elsewhere.

“Everyone is struggling to pay bills and council tax at the moment, so for it to have to go on this is a waste.”

City council environment convener Craig Melville said: “In total it has cost the council £13,000 to remove rubbish and clean up the two sites where Travellers have been camping.

“This includes staff from the council’s environment department spending a whole day at each site removing all sorts of waste, including gas cylinders.”

Meanwhile the Travellers are still occupying the former Scottish Water property off Riverside Drive that they moved into last Wednesday evening.