LITTER PICKING

Litter Picking is carried out in the Village on a voluntary daily basis.  This is because The Highland Council Litter Crew are only allocated 10 minutes to 'do' the Village.

It takes, on average, four and a half hours to walk the entire Village area on Litter Picking - but it isn't ALL done every day!  Phew!

The areas covered are:

• Skye Bridge to the Roundabout and Taste of India Restaurant;
• Kyle House Brae
• The Foreshore, Old Telescope and The Otter Pool;
• Kyleakin Village Hall and environs;
• Kyleside to the old CalMac Slipway and the Harbour Slipways;
• Kyleakin Harbour & An t'Obbe
• South Obbe, Village Bay & the Fisherman's Pier;
• Castle Maol and Foreshore to Rubha Ard Treisnis
• The War Memorial
• Car Park, The Corran & the Boat Park
• Olaf Road and intersecting roads;
• Children's Play Park and the Primary School.

The Highland Council are very helpful in providing bin bags and gloves free of charge for Litter Picking ops.

On average, in 2007, sixteen and a half bags of litter were picked up weekly during the Tourist Season (March - September) and at Christmas/New Year.  This dwindled to about four bags a week at other times.

In 2008, KEG collected a total of 637 bags of litter  during the course of the year, including the Harbour Clean-Up.

In 2009, KEG members collected 532 bags of litter, this figure excludes the Litter Pick-Ups in other areas.

The main litter being dropped is Crisp Packets, Bus Tickets, Plastic Carrier Bags, Ear Buds, pieces of Rope & Twine, empty Cigarette Packets & Wrappers, Disposable Lighters, Pens, Plastic Bottles & Beer Glasses, Sweetie Wrappers, Ice Lolly Sticks, empty Ice Cream Cartons, Fast Food containers, empty Beer Cans & Drinks Cans ('Red Bull' cans mostly!) and Glass - broken or intact.  There are also a considerable number of cigarette butts.

Flotsam (stuff washed up on the shore and into the Harbour) includes Baulks of Timber, Logs, Tree Roots, Wooden Pallets, Fish Boxes, Plastic Bags etc.

An Annual Harbour Clean-Up is held in the Autumn, sadly in 2007 it had to be cancelled due to severely inclement weather.  The 'Slipway' would have lived up to its name! 

We are now involved in the Beachwatch campaign with the Marine Conservation Society and have 'adopted' the Beach area from Kyleakin Quarry to Rubha Ard Treisnis (with the full support of Fearann Eilean Iarmain, who own this area) and the tidal inlet of An t'Obbe, which is the Property of The Crown Estate.

KEG also carry out Clean Ups of areas within the Skye & Lochalsh area which have had problems of fly-tipping etc.  For details of the last ones go to the DEAR DIARY page.

See the NEWS page for details of the next Clean-Up.

Broken Glass Glasses are regularly thrown onto the Foreshore by late-night revellers. Broken Glass can be hazardous to dogs and beach-users.	Flotsam A Tree Root recovered from The Foreshore

FOUND PROPERTY

Any Property - Handbags, Wallets, Bank Cards etc, Cameras, Mobile Phones, i-Pods, Jewellry items, Cash, Keys etc found during Litter Picking in the Kyleakin area, are ALWAYS handed into Kyle Police Station.

It is advisable to contact the local Police if you have lost anything valuable (Tel. 01599 534222) and reporting it.

Please note that Kyle Police Station is not always manned and your call may be transferred to another Police Station within the Command Area.