HOUSING bosses have been slammed by an angry local who says ‘overgrown’ trees are plunging her street into total darkness at night and providing a hotspot for litterbugs to dump waste.

Duncan Street resident Aileen Findlater is calling for Sanctuary Scotland to take steps to address the condition of the large trees that encircle the former Greenock Health Centre site.

The 61-year-old says the trees block out streetlights and create visibility issues for pedestrians and motorists.

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The level of nuisance caused by the trees has been so great that Aileen has taken steps herself to cut them back, but she says more action is needed from Sanctuary.

(Image: George Munro)

She told the Tele: “I’ve been here 35 years and the trees have never been brought down in height.

“Very occasionally they would be trimmed, but as the years have gone on it’s got worse.

“Sanctuary Housing don’t seem to have been doing anything about it since they took over.

“I’m not against have trees here but it’s a problem for us at the moment.”

Sanctuary Housing were granted permission last year to build 64 homes at the former Health Centre site, which will be a mixture of flats and terraced properties.

Aileen says she and her neighbours approached Sanctuary to raise their concerns about the trees during the planning process, but are yet to see any action taken.

(Image: George Munro)

She said: “We all objected when the planning went in because of the trees and they told us they would take down 12 of the trees.

“But there’s 27 trees here and right now they overhang the pavement and hit walkers in the face, plus it creates a blind spot for cars at the bottom of the street.

“The trees are so tall you can’t see the streetlights at night, it’s total darkness.

“It’s totally depressing and nobody’s listening to us. I’ve phoned Sanctuary over and over since they took it over, but we’ve had nothing.

“The lower parts of the trees are overgrown too and we’re finding all sorts of litter in there – bottles, cans, methadone cups, bags of rubbish – it’s horrible.

“It got so bad I went down about six weeks ago to trim some of it, but people are just throwing everything in there and dumping stuff.

“The council own the pavement, which has been patched up to fix the cracks from the roots, but it’s Sanctuary who’ve got to fix this.”

(Image: George Munro)

When contacted by the Telegraph, a spokesperson for Sanctuary Scotland offered an apology for the issues the trees had caused.

They said: “We are sorry to hear about the issues with the trees and will work with residents to understand their concerns and find a suitable solution.”