Hundreds of discarded cans and bottles collected in three weeks
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John Crowden hit out at Thursday night’s meeting after hearing that local man John Calder had gathered over 700 empty cans from around the village over a three-week period.
Mr Calder collected 754 cans in an area stretching from the harbour to Olrig Cemetery, along by the primary school and on to Harland Road.
He also picked up 75 empty half bottles of vodka and 50 other bottles as well as nine bags of plastic bottles.
However, Mr Calder said the number of cans he collected was down by half compared to the figure for last year.
He told the meeting that he is not the only person in the village picking up discarded rubbish voluntarily.
“There are one or two other people who collect it as well,” he said.
The amount of rubbish Mr Calder picked up surprised members, despite the reduction from last year.
“It is an horrendous amount of stuff to be picking up,” said Mr Crowden, who claimed many of the items were “being chucked out of cars”.
Landward Caithness Highland councillor Robert Coghill has called for tougher action to be taken against offenders. He pointed out it costs around £3 million to pick up litter dropped by the public. Mr Coghill said it is “totally unacceptable” and claimed something needs to be done to tackle it. He stressed that quite substantial fines can be imposed for these offences and said the rules need to be enforced.
Earlier, community councillors again expressed concern that a serious road accident could occur at a busy road junction in the middle of Castletown unless action is taken. The matter has been raised several times by members who claim vehicles parking at the local shop are causing difficulties for other motorists and pedestrians.
Jenny Gunn warned there would be “a fatality if nothing is done”.
Thurso-based police officer Jamie Farquhar, who was at Thursday night’s meeting, said he would take the matter up with a senior officer.
