An Elgin man has pledged to continue his one-man crusade against litter on Moray’s coastal beauty spots until official action is taken.
Pete Miners has patrolled the Moray coastline since 1970 and over that time has noted the build up of rubbish on the shoreline as less official clean up action is being taken.
In the last two years Mr Miners has been recording the number of glass alcohol bottles he has personally removed from the estuary of the River Lossie – with the numbers climbing to an alarming 700 in just 13 months.
He said: “There is a whopping rubbish problem along the Lossie Estuary – there are over 30 car tyres visible all the way upstream for about 2km from the Seatown bridge.
“And yet it is currently nobody’s job to retrieve this – other than volunteers who can’t move the bulky stuff.
“The nasty piles of rubbish I’ve shown to the Moray Council are still there – there is just no system of retrieval and there has apparently been no monitoring of the kind I have been doing either.”
Following letters to Richard Lochhead a meeting was held at the start of this month after which the Moray MSP promised to write to Moray Council over the issue.
Mr Miners said the local community warden was also aware of the problem: “Tim Betts is going to arrange volunteer picks in the summer which is great – but I’ve told him it requires a more formal system.
“I’ve just taken 56 glass bottles from the Estuary in the last month – had I not done this in December they would have been moved about on every spring tide and likely be sunk or broken, buried or washed out to sea by summer.”
As well as the Lossie estuary Mr Miners and his dog Alfie have also carried out surveys from Culbin Sands to Portgordon, with many of their findings posted on his Facebook page.
Reports of Mr Miners findings are to be discussed at the next meeting of the Lossiemouth Community Council, for whom a spokesman said: “We have been aware and concerned for some time over the level of rubbish on our shore and along the river and have worked with Tim Betts and other community wardens in the past on community beach cleans.
“We are grateful to Mr Miners for bringing his studies to our attention and this will be discussed by members as soon as possible.”