South Lanarkshire Council is urging locals to tackle fly-tipping across the area.
‘More and more money wasted removing fly-tipping from our communities’ is the message from the council as it attempts to tackle the issue.
As part of the local authority’s ongoing battle to keep the area free from rubbish, the council’s street cleansing team had to remove a huge amount of dumped material, which cost £906.
Chair of the Community and Enterprise Resources Committee, councillor Robert Brown, said: “It is again very disappointing that we have had to waste so much time and money clearing up rubbish that could have and should have been disposed of responsibly.
“Our teams work hard to tackle the ongoing fly-tipping problem in our communities. But the reality is that we need everyone to help us by reporting this unwanted behaviour carried out by a minority of people who seem to think the rules don’t apply to them.
“This costs the public services time and money that could be better spent on other things. Neither the council nor local communities are prepared to tolerate this, and we aim to stamp it out.”
Over 220 instances of fly-tipping have had to be removed already this year. Last year, there were more than 3000 fly-tipping cases, all of which had to be removed at a great expense to the council.
Only just last week, the council received reports of fly-tipping at Pembroke in the Calderwood area of East Kilbride.
This case is being investigated by the council’s Environmental Crime Team to determine the source of the waste and then issue a Fixed Penalty Notice to those responsible.
The council has four mobile CCTV units dedicated for environmental anti-social behaviour such as rubbish and fly-tipping and a further ten CCTV units are installed in hotspots relating to general anti-social behaviour.
Fly-tipping is illegal and can come with a prison sentence or a fine of up to £40,000.
Kevin Carr, head of facilities in the waste and grounds services, said: “Fly-tipping has grown in recent years, causing a negative impact on our health and wellbeing, the economy, and our natural environment as well as diverting council resources in this challenging financial climate.
“We are working with all departments of the council and our partners to encourage personal responsibility and ultimately change the behaviour of those responsible.
“But we cannot do this on our own. It is time for everyone to play their part in tackling these issues to make South Lanarkshire a cleaner place to live, work and visit.
“Fixed penalty notices (FPNs) are issued when we identify the person responsible for dumping material.
“When FPNs are not paid the offence may be reported to the Procurator Fiscal.”
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