Suspected fly tipper caught in the act as local MP calls for Edinburgh City Council clampdown

A resident has claimed to have caught a vehicle entering their community and sumping industrial debris by residential homes.

The concerned resident, who does not wish to be named, spotted a fly tipper in the West of Edinburgh on Tuesday afternoon.

They captured the vehicle entering their community and traced the vehicle to a site where debris had been dumped.

They said: “This person has been spotted doing this sort of thing by three neighbours in the past. Unfortunately I could not catch them in the act but did manage to get pictures of what they had dumped.”

Flytipped debris that was boxes for pumps of some kind

As a result of incidents like this, Edinburgh West MP, Christine Jardine, is calling on the Edinburgh City Council to clamp down on fly tipping and dumping in West Edinburgh.

This follows statistics which were released by Councillor Ashley Graczyk last week.

The latest council statistics show that the worst ward in Edinburgh is Sighthill-Gorgie with 1,170 requests for fly-tipped and dumped items to be removed in 2020.

This accounts for 12 percent of all dumping reports logged across Edinburgh throughout 2020.

Flytipping and dumping league table

Ms Jardine said: “Fly tipping isn’t just inconsiderate and an eyesore it can be dangerous and create environmental problems and for my constituents who are sick and tired of people using their communities as a dumping ground.

“It’s outrageous that there is so much fly tipping in an area like Sighthill where there is already a huge recycling centre.

“We owe a huge thank you to those in the waste industry working to keep services up and running during the pandemic, but the council and the public have to do more to support them.

“The council needs to be keeping people better informed about the provision of services and produce a long-term plan to reduce the amount of fly tipping in the city.”

A Gorgie-Dalry community council spokesperson, said: “"The data requested by GDCC confirm what residents have been reporting to us throughout 2020: that fly tipping in Gorgie/Dalry is a constant problem, is significantly worse than in

other parts of the city, and has become more frequent over time. We are aware that our local Councillors have already taken some steps to raise this issue on our and residents behalf, however, residents are thoroughly fed up with Gorgie/Dalry being treated like a free dump, and it is no longer acceptable for the Council to delay the work or resources needed to keep our area clean."

Councillor Lesley Macinnes, Environment Convener, said: “It’s always really disappointing to see fly tipping spoiling our beautiful city and we appreciate there has been a lot of cases in this area.

"The selfish actions of a few can really affect those living in a local community and there is no excuse for it. We have a simple booking system for residents to access our Household Waste Recycling centres and a special uplift service that costs only £5 per item to legally dispose of unwanted bulky household waste.

“We’re constantly tackling issues such as those highlighted here and the team is currently handling a small number of complaints for the Sighthill/Gorgie area. Our enforcement team will continue to work closely with cleansing colleagues to remove items as quickly as possible and we’ll continue to undertake patrols and surveillance in this location where we can.”

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