A scattering of used syringes was left littering the ground along a walking route to school for almost a week before City of Brampton crews responded to calls from residents to clean it up.

“It’s literally within inches of a sidewalk,” said resident Mark Symington who first spotted the hazardous litter on McMurchy Avenue South, near Royce Avenue, as he walked his children home from school on Friday, Jan. 26.

Schoolchildren walked by the hazard, between the sidewalk and a hydro box, every day, he said.

Symington and his neighbours called police, hydro, the city and the landlord of the nearby commercial building, before being told the City of Brampton would clean it up.