BARRIERS and steps are preventing the elderly and disabled of Selkirk from dumping garden waste at their local recycling centre.

And the town’s former doctor is demanding that refuse bosses make improvements.

Despite widespread opposition, Scottish Borders Council ended kerbside uplifts of garden waste at the start of April.

Gardeners from across the region were told to start taking their grass cuttings, weeds and prunings to their closest recycling centres. But the Riverside refuse amenity in Selkirk is proving problematic for many.

Dr Lindsay Neil has now written a letter of complaint to waste managers at Newtown St Boswells.

The former GP told the Border Telegraph: “On two recent visits to offload garden waste, the new additional arrangements required the mounting of some steps in order to then manually lift the waste container a further three feet to dump in the skip.

“On enquiring of the attendant how long the new arrangements were to last, he replied that they were permanent.

“Now disabled people and many members of the public are thus unable to use the service.” Dr Neil believes that Scottish Borders Council is in breach of Equality laws by discriminating against anyone with a disability.

Alistair Pattullo, secretary of Selkirk Community Council, agrees that there is a problem. He said: “It is not easy to climb those steps with a full bag of waste for able bodied people.

“Even when you are up the steps you still have to lift the bags up and over a barrier - there must be an easier way.” Two large skips are located at the Selkirk Recycling Centre throughout the week specifically for garden waste. And additional skips are brought in at weekends to cope with demand. But only one of the containers can be accessed from ground level - with the other being filled from a gantry area.

Waste manager Ross Sharp-Dent said: “We have listened to customer feedback and adjusted the operations to ensure one skip is accessible via a ramp. However we cannot guarantee this will be available at all times as the skip has a limited capacity. We appreciate that the use of a gantry is a change to the previous method. However staff are on site to assist where loads are of a manageable size.

“Where ever possible we would advise members of the public to consider the size of containers they are bringing to site to ensure they can safely use the skips provided.” Later this month Scottish Borders Council will start uplifting green bins from local households.

Exact dates for each town will be advertised over the next week or two.

Meanwhile organisers of Scott’s Selkirk are appealing for up to 20 of the plastic wheely bins.

Local councillor Gordon Edgar said: “Scott’s Selkirk uses the bins for storing and transporting the gazebos. We could do with around 20.”