A GALASHIELS man has questioned the council about the state of the roads near his home after he spent hours digging up “muck and mud” from along the kerbs.

Edward Kwiatek, 67, has lived on Hall Street for the past five years, having previously resided in Clovenfords.

And last week, Mr Kwiatek said he spent “about four hours” lifting out “mess” from along the kerbs on Hall Street and Union Street.

Speaking to this newspaper last Friday (June 11), the retired landscaper said: “It was at least six inches deep, the muck and mud and everything like that, that was to be lifted out.

“This is not what a community should be doing, this is what the council should be doing.”

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Mr Kwiatek says he contacted Scottish Borders Council (SBC) on Wednesday, June 9, to clear away the “five or six piles” of what he had dug up, which he had left on the kerb to be collected.

On Wednesday (June 16), the piles of mud were still on the kerb.

The 67-year-old says that the area has been left during the last couple of years by SBC to become “overgrown”, which he describes as “so annoying”.

“You can go into Hall Place and you’ll find the whole place is overgrown and the same in Union Street,” he said. “There’s not even someone going about with a sprayer.

“You see these streets and you think, ‘Why, why are they not bothering?’”

He added: “I know for a fact that no one has done this street in the last couple of years, if not three years.

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“I actually saw someone yesterday in their little buggy with a sprayer on the back turn down the side of my house into Hall Place and I thought, ‘Oh right, they’ve decided they’re going to spray now down here’.

“No, no, they went out of there and came down Union Street. By the time I put my shoes on and went round they were gone.

“It’s just another black mark as you wander round Gala,” he added.

On Friday, Mr Kwiatek said he was hopeful that the piles of mud he removed from along the kerb would be taken away by SBC before it next rained.

According to Mr Kwiatek, the rain comes down from Kirkbrae and contributes to drainage issues due to the build up of material next to the curb – a problem he says occurs “year in, year out”.

“My motorhome is parked there [on Union Street], my car is parked there and at times you’re parking about a foot away at least from the kerb because the tyres are sitting in old, stank water over a period of time in winter,” he said.

This newspaper has approached Scottish Borders Council for comment.