A LARGS dad has launched a novel plan to make the town a cleaner place.

Alan Peddie, 38, has launched an online scheme where people can 'adopt' a street that they will pledge to keep tidy - and has already seen over 160 people sign up.

The scheme also lets people to flag up areas in need of attention so that others can go and volunteer to take them on.

Alan said: "I got sick of people complaining about the same issues over and over again.

"I know that there are no easy fixes but I just thought that starting a grassroots imitative would encourage people to pitch in.

"I thought that if people seen others cleaning up and getting involved it would inspire them to do the same and get them thinking about their waste.

"It is this sort of work I do in my job at Edinburgh University, encouraging sustainability and to get people to think about their waste and house training.

"There has been a tidal wave of support. I knew there would be people that want to get up and help the town."

Alan say the most pressing issues raised have been over bins overflowing, car park mess and schoolkids leaving rubbish in their wake.

He added: "I would walk my dog the same route every day and pick up all the rubbish. I just thought it would be great if everyone did the same.

"People complain about the site next to Morrisons all the time and one day I just went along and it took about 10 minutes to clean it up, pictured.

"It is more proactive than wasting energy complaining."

People have already signed up to maintain areas including Makerston Park, Dalry Moore Road, Broomfields, the skatepark, Boyd Street, Glenacre Drive, Barrfields, Aubrey beach and park and Allanpark Street.

Alan hopes that this is just the start or new town-focused initiatives and has already assisted in setting up a local school uniform recycling project.

Alan added: "There is group in Edinburgh which is a food sharing social enterprise and if you have food that you are going to throw out then you put in on the online community and people can come and get it.

"So if people are moving out or are going on holiday they don't just bin the stuff in their fridge, it can actually get used by someone else.

"At work we also went round local businesses and got them involved, so at the end of the day they would post up saying what food they have left and it would be first come first serve.

"It would be great if things like this could be done in Largs."

Anyone interested in helping should search for Clean Up Largs on Facebook.