A VOLUNTEER litter picker is disgusted at the rubbish strewn along railway tracks in North Ayrshire but can't clean it up because of trespassing laws.

Jodie Dickinson, from Ayrshire Litter Volunteer Network (ALVN), says that the embankment next to Ardrossan's South Beach Station is particularly bad, but the land is owned by Network Rail and trespassing on it could lead to a £1,000 fine.

She said: “South Beach and the line all the way from Largs to Glasgow are disgusting with litter and fly tipping.

"The train company should be cleaning it up. It doesn't look good for tourism.

“It's terrible and looks so unsightly. This has been an ongoing thing. It's disgusting.

"I wanted to pick it up but I couldn't because I would get fined for trespassing.”

A Network Rail spokesman said: “Each year, we remove thousands of tonnes of litter from the operational railway in Scotland. This is a task which could be largely avoided if people took their rubbish to a bin.

"Litter collection instead uses up maintenance staff time that could be better spent on improving the performance of our network. The litter at this location has been reported to our maintenance engineers.”