AN IRVINE dog walker has got the go-ahead for a mass clean-up of 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, who regularly visits the site to walk his dog, says the amount of rubbish is a danger to wildlife and anyone who walks there.

He has now had the green light from North Ayrshire Council to go ahead with the volunteer clean up on the new date of May 20.

And Jim is now looking for more volunteers to help clear the beach area.

He said: “I had originally planned it for this weekend.

“But I met with the council and they asked that we postpone until they had looked at the health and safety aspect and also got permissions from the people who own the land that we need enter to access the beach, which is fine, so the new date is now Sunday, May 20.”

“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.

“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.”

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