AN IRVINE dog walker is appealing to residents to help him clear up the town’s coastline.

Jim Hobson says the stretch of beach next to the former Ayrshire Metals site is “disgusting and dangerous” due to “hundreds of tonnes” of rubbish which have been washed up or dumped at the beauty spot.

Jim says he regularly visits the site to walk his dog or sometimes go fishing and says the amount of rubbish is a danger to wildlife and anyone who walks there.

He said: “There must be hundreds of tonnes of plastic and rubbish down there and it won’t be long before an animal is killed.

“Just last week I had to rescue a swan that had become tangled up in blue mesh, plastic netting.

“It couldn’t free itself and was in distress. I managed to free it but if I hadn’t happened to be there I don’t know what would have happened to the poor thing.

“This rubbish is washing in and out from the sea, but I think there’s people dumping stuff too, so it’s a bit of both.

“There’s a lot of people who go down there fishing and walking dogs and I’m down there a lot too. It’s a nice place to go and there’s a lot of wildlife down there too.”

Now Jim is appealing for volunteers to help him clean up the coastline on Sunday, May 20.

He said: “I want to get a team of people down there and we can clean it up. I am going to ask North Ayrshire Council if they can provide us with bags and the things we need to make a good job of it.

“I honestly don’t know how long it would take, but it’s not something that can be done in a day, given the amount of rubbish there is down there.

“But I do know the more hands we have the easier it will be so if anyone can help us out I would ask them to get in touch.”

The Times spoke to North Ayrshire Council who said they would be sending their Streetscene team down to assess the site, before any clean up could be arranged.

If you are free and would like to help Jim, call him on 07738091211.