A GILSLAND resident has taken matters into his own hands after visitors to a local beauty spot left behind an unwanted gift.

A week of glorious sun and hot temperatures saw people flocking to Crammel Linn waterfall to enjoy a day of picnicking and sun bathing surrounded by nature.

However, in their wake, they left piles of rubbish that Malcolm Redman, a Gilsland resident, took upon himself to spend days cleaning up.

Mr Redman said: “I started on my own doing it but quickly realised I needed help so I put a call-out to people in the village.

“We got five or six of us together and we’ve been co-ordinating a litter pick once or twice in the day.

“If there was a flash flood, all the lightweight stuffs, all the plastic, all the foodstuff, all the dirt and rubbish that has been left would just get washed out to the Solway Firth.

“It’s pure and simple environmental common sense.”

Multiple black bin bags have been crammed full of the rubbish picked up by Malcolm and the other local volunteers.

Among the items discarded at Crammel Linn was plastic, children’s toys, tins, food, and glass.

The litter pickers even picked up a giant inflatable unicorn that had been left.

He said: “They brought that all the way down, blew it up, used it, and left it.”

For residents in the surrounding areas of natural beauty such as Crammel Linn, it’s a point of pride to live near to something so wonderful.

They don’t want people to stop visiting, just to be mindful of protecting the environment they’re visiting.

“Where these people are going to do all of this, it’s an SSSI site,” said Malcolm.

“They’re just leaving everything down there so if we had left it, there would be six days of accumulated rubbish lying a heap down there - people would have just tramped over it.

“We have enough roadside litter, we don’t need people dumping stuff in river valleys.”