Flies Swarm at Hunthill Road

During the Summer of 1947, the warm weather brought an unwelcome visitor to Blantyre.

Swarms of flies descended upon houses all along Hunthill Road bordering on to the Calder. The tenants blamed a refuse coup which was situated immediately behind the houses on the high ground overlooking the River Calder. During Wartime years in 1943, the Fifth District Council of Lanarkshire were saving money by creating open air coups in places more handy to the collection points. The Council had decided it was a suitable place to tip, although probably at the time thought it being a short term measure during war.

However, each year, as the rubbish massed, the nuisance with flies had got worse. When a reporter visited the homes on Saturday 2nd August 1947, he found flies massed on people’s ceilings, hearths and windows.

Mr William Duncan, the District Councillor who also visited the homes took it upon himself to raise the matter, proposing immediate cease to the tipping in the area and to create a permanent larger landfill tip away from the population. The complaint was made to the sanitary department who took the matter seriously and put a stop to the tipping by the end of that year.