AN AYR woman was left disgusted after witnessing a man smoke a suspicious pipe near a children’s playpark.

Catherine Borland is fed up with the behaviour of some residents, after also finding dirty syringes lying in various patches near James Brown Avenue in the Whitletts area of Ayr.

Last week she caught one man who was allegedly smoking a drug pipe next to a play park where her nine-year-old son and other young children were playing.

Catherine told the Ayr Advertiser: “There were loads of kids out. We were taking our son out to take him to get a new goldfish, if I hadn’t went out, I wouldn’t have seen him.

“There were loads of people who got out their houses to tell him to get off the street.”

She added: “They are always walking about here looking like zombies all the time, nothing gets done about it, if you report it, it just gets swept under the carpet.”

The mum of three has told how last month her daughter had to stop young children from going near needles that were left behind on a doorstep behind main shops.

She said: “I know what it’s like myself, it happened to me I was a cleaner at Craig Tara. It happened to me when I was cleaning a cupboard, I got jabbed by a needle and had to go through six months of injections from the doctor, so I wouldn’t like any child to go through that.”

As well as finding drug materials near doorways, Catherine has also heard of users allegedly throwing dirty used syringes out of windows.

She added: “There’s a lot of really good people here and a good community, there are people who go out and pick these needles up. They try to tidy up, but more has to be done.”

Leader of South Ayrshire council Douglas Campbell told the Ayr Advertiser: “This is a really disturbing development. I would urge the public to report incidents to the police to tackle the irresponsible drug use near the park.”

A spokesperson for South Ayrshire Council said: “The removal of waste from the doorways of privately-owned shops is the responsibility of the owners, not the council, and we would encourage all property owners to do their bit to keep their properties clean and safe.”

“We are unaware of any issues regarding discarded needles in this particular area and it’s not something we have been contacted about recently.”