Edinburgh residents' fury at mess left by travellers at popular Silverknowes beauty spot
Local residents have been left angry after a group of travellers evicted from a popular Edinburgh beauty spot left the area looking like a “bomb site”.
A group of travellers descended on an area of greenspace popular with locals at Silverknowes on June 10, as is the case every summer. They were given a 28-day eviction notice by the council at the start of July and left the site on Saturday, August 3.
But locals have been left angry at the mess the travellers have left behind, with concerns raised about the cost the council incurs every summer to clean up the mess.
A local man from Cramond, who asked not to be named, spoke about how he believes this year’s mess is the worst ever, and he called on the council to do more to prevent travellers accessing the site.
He said: “The stuff there is just insane. Everything from nappies to full kitchen units, just so much rubbish. They leave stuff behind every year, but this year it’s probably twice as much as normal.
“The council has promised to clean it up and said they will sort it out. They should make it impossible in the future for caravans to get onto that site.
“It gets worse every year. The council knows it will happen but they never change anything. The barriers currently there are not enough to stop them getting in.
“The council could put up more barriers and means to stop them getting access to the site. The caravans get in no problem and they just treat the place like their own land.
“I have lived in Cramond for most of my life and most years there is a group of travellers there in the summer. This year it was guys doing gardening works. So they left all of their garden waste from jobs behind them on the site.
“I know through a Freedom of Information request that it has cost up to £13,000 to clean-up in the past. So this year I think it will be about £25,000, which the council will have to find from somewhere.
“I think it would be more cost effective to use that kind of money to put up barriers to stop them getting in there at all.”
The local man added that the travellers also caused issues for the local community when they were staying at the site next to Silverknowes Beach this summer.
He said: “Local people have been staying away from the area when the travellers are there, and now it’s like a bomb site.
“It’s really sad. I’m a professional dog walker, so I have been unable to use that area. They didn’t use toilets either, they just went in the bushes.
“There is a nursery down there that couldn’t use the site for outdoor learning as they normally do. There is also the kids cycle track down there and it was covered in all sorts. A youth group has a container down there with equipment for activities which they couldn’t get into.”
The City of Edinburgh Council was contacted for comment.