A DUNFERMLINE woman was left "disgusted" after counting 41 discarded shopping trolleys underneath the Glen Bridge.

Out for a Sunday stroll, Jacqueline Feeley said there was so much rubbish dumped on the route between St Margaret's Cave and Buffies Brae that it "turned my stomach".

She said: "I counted 41 trolleys in the space of a few hundred yards.

"Even apart from all the litter, the value of those trolleys alone must be considerable.

"No wonder we pay so much for shopping.

"There was a guy out walking too that said these trolleys cost about £140 each.

"Most of them were from Tesco but there were B&Q trolleys too."

The area under the Glen Bridge has long been a problem for Fife Council and it was closed off last year after being blighted by anti-social behaviour, vandalism, fly-tipping and safety issues.

Jacqueline, 58, a financial director who lives in Dunfermline, continued: "There's some effort involved in taking a trolley down there, lifting it and then throwing it down a ditch.

"What do people get out of doing that? I just don't understand it.

"I was so disgusted. And it's not just trolleys, there's vast quantities of litter and graffiti as well.

"I like to go for a walk and take pictures but I couldn't take a decent one as there's graffiti everywhere."

She continued: "In normal times, if you've got tourists coming to St Margaret's Cave and they see that, they're not going to come back in a hurry.

"Dunfermline is such a lovely town but I could cry with some of the stories I'm reading about benches being burned and the vandalism in the Glen.

"It's heartbreaking."

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We don’t like to see trolleys taken from our stores because we want them to be available for our customers and we don’t want them to cause any harm to the local environment.

"We use a specialist company to retrieve our trolleys when they have been taken and we’d ask anyone who sees an abandoned Tesco trolley to let their local store know so we can get it back as soon as possible.”

A multi-agency group was formed to look for solutions in the Glen Bridge area but did not meet during lockdown and Councillor Helen Law wants it to re-start as soon as possible.

The convener of the City of Dunfermline area committee added: "Hopefully, we can come up with something to make this area safe and more attractive.

"It should be a beauty spot instead of a dumping ground for trolleys and rubbish.

"Once a trolley is thrown down there it's very difficult for Tesco or anyone else to retrieve it as it's a steep ravine.

"People have fallen in there before and it's been very difficult to reach them.

"As well as trying to find something worthwhile for this spot, there is work going on to support the pathway and stabilise the embankment to make it safe."

The council's safer communities manager, Kirstie Freeman, said: “We will take action now on any graffiti and step up patrols in the area. Our team will also speak to the supermarkets about retrieving the shopping trolleys.

“We rely on the public coming forward and reporting graffiti. You can do this online at www.fife.gov.uk or phone 03451 55 00 22.”