Health hazard

A member of the Board of Governors at the state-of-the-art school, Mrs Hamilton this week said she was 'just disgusted' with the dumping that was occurring on the ground near the College grounds, saying that a visitor to the facility could be forgiven for thinking the school had been built on a dump site.

"It is just disgusting to look at. I am on the Board of Governors at the school and my impression when I am driving to a meeting of the Governors or up to a school on business is that the grounds around this beautiful school look like a dump. In fact, anyone visiting the school for the first time would think they were driving through a dump to get to the school," she said.

On a mission to discover what was lurking in the scrubland adjacent to the school on Monday Mrs Hamilton said she had found discarded fridges, a bed on the footpath leading to the school, bags or rubbish and what appeared to be household waste as well as oil drums and what appeared to be oil spills and mountains of stones and rubble.

"There is anything and everything being tipped close to the school, it has become a real dumping ground," the irate Alderman said, adding: "While I was there I met an acquaintance walking his dog and he said that one morning recently he came upon a bag of syringes. He told me he rang the police and they came out and took them away."

Mrs Hamilton continued: "People are dumping all manner of waste there. In fact, a lorry man from Knightsbridge was fit to tell me that, because there are no lights on the roads around the area at night the lights on cars and lorries are lighting up the eyes of rats that are out foraging in the waste at night. The residents in the nearby housing estates there are telling me they are afraid to open their doors during the day or at night because they are afraid rats will come into their homes. It is very worrying."

Mrs Hamilton said she had written to the Roads Service on a number of occasions about the increasing problem of dumping on the derelict land, but the authorities had confirmed they would get back to her.

"This land has simply become a tipping ground. We have a beautiful new school that has cost millions to build and we should all have some pride in the area. Apart from the fact that this rubbish is fast becoming a danger to the health of the children attending the school, and on a breezy day is blowing into and around the school grounds, I wonder if those who are guilty of dumping this waste would turn a blind eye if the same rubbish was blowing round their properties. I think not," she said.

"This area is a health hazard and I cannot strongly enough condemn those responsible for dumping it. Someone owns the ground and someone is going to have to take responsibility for clearing this mess up."