old school site isa dumping ground

A woman has criticised Midlothian Council for letting the former site of Bryan's Primary School become an overgrown dumping ground.
Lesley Mackinnon in her gardenLesley Mackinnon in her garden
Lesley Mackinnon in her garden

Midlothian Council has now promised to clear the site after Lesley MacKinnon (46) of Rowantree Road, Mayfield, told the Advertiser about her concerns. She first alerted the local authority in April

She said: “You can’t see anything because it’s so overgrown. It’s just a big massive field of weeds. I want something done about it.

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“Someone needs to come down to cut all the weeds and lift all the rubbish. There are car tyres, bags of rubbish, you name it. There are probably rats in there as well.

“I have had to put plastic on my raised garden bed to stop it coming through the fence.

“The council did keep on top of it before. About twice every summer they would send a truck round to cut the weeds on the boundary.

“When I phoned the council I got shunted from pillar to post. They didn’t know if the land had been sold or not.

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“The council moan at you to keep your garden tidy. I spent all this money to keep it tidy but I have got all these weeds coming through and ruining it.

“They just do nothing. The last contact I had with the council was about six weeks ago. And I have told them repeatedly that there are wheelie bins in there but they are not interested. I’m fed up banging my head against a brick wall.

“Last year my husband went round with loppers and cut it himself. But I said you are not doing it this year. It’s not our garden.”

A Midlothian Council spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise to Mrs McKinnon for the difficulties experienced and thank her for her patience; we can assure her this issue will be resolved as quickly as possible.

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“After a thorough investigation, plans are now scheduled to tidy the area – cutting the grass and applying a herbicide along the boundary of Mrs McKinnon’s property.

“Any disused wheelie bins inside the area will also be 
removed and we would 
encourage any residents who become aware of situations like this to alert us in order to get it resolved.”