A SNP councillor has welcomed extra funding to tackle fly-tipping and has hit out at the Labour Group in South Lanarkshire for voting against proposals.
The recent budget saw £682k earmarked over a two-year period to tackle the serious issue which is a blight on communities across the area.
Investment will address four specific challenges: food waste in rural areas – hot composter project; recycling in tenement properties and fly-tipping in both rural and urban areas.
East Kilbride SNP councillor, John Anderson, told us : "Given the recent spate of fly-tipping by those selfish people who do not care about the area we all live in I was pleased to see in the local budget that money was given to help address this scourge within our society.
"I was of course very disappointed that Labour chose to vote against this budget and funding that will help to keep our communities clean and tidy, they will need to explain to the constituents who rightly contact local councillors about this matter, why they would vote against this funding to help tackle fly-tipping."
However, Labour Group leader, Councillor Joe Fagan hit back.
He said: "This is too little too late from the SNP.
"If they think their weak budget deal is anywhere near enough to tackle mounting fly-tipping and rat complaints then they have totally lost touch with the people of East Kilbride.
"Labour’s fully costed alternative would have provided an extra free waste uplift and a cash injection of more than £3m into neglected frontline services.
"At least £1m would have been ring-fenced for cleaning up our communities.
"We could invest even more in the frontline if council budgets had not been butchered by the SNP Government, whose priorities clearly do not lie in East Kilbride."
He added: "After five years of drift and decline at South Lanarkshire Council, East Kilbride is getting dirtier and people have had enough.
"It's time to clean up our community and make our council work for its people once again."
East Kilbride MSP, Collette Stevenson added: "The Scottish Government have given local authorities a fair funding settlement - once capital grants are added to total revenue allocations, the total local government settlement increases to £12,538m, resulting in a real-terms increase of £603m or up 5.1 per cent between 2021/22 and 2022/23.
"It’s odd then for Councillor Fagan to suggest the Scottish Government have “butchered” local authority budgets.”
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