Enforcement the answer to the ongoing blight of urban fly-tipping - Steve Cardownie
Walking through the New Town to get to George Street the other day I was confronted by yet another example of the type of anti-social behaviour that is still all too common in Edinburgh and throughout Scotland and that is fly-tipping.
Lying next to some communal bins were some household items that the owner had discarded with no thought for anybody but themselves. A two-seater settee and a mattress had been unceremoniously dumped to become someone else’s problem.
The Scottish Government’s website describes litter and flytipping in the following terms,” Cases of both litter and flytipping can have a negative impact on the land (and marine environment,) causing environmental harm and creating an adverse impact on the quality of the environment. Litter and flytipping can also be unpleasant to see/smell and impede/interfere with public amenities and spaces.”
I have written before about the prevalence of illegal dumping in the woods at Gypsy Brae where a scenic path is regularly marred by the sight of old fridges, cookers and building materials left in the dead of night by anti-social morons. They don’t spare a thought for others as long as they are not “inconvenienced” by taking their rubbish to a legitimate dumping site and save a bob or two into the bargain.
The fines which came into force on January 1st 2024 increased from £200 to £500 with local authorities receiving 284,762 reports of illegal rubbish dumping since 2019-20, with only 51 cases referred to the procurator fiscal and just 3,317 fixed penalty notices issued ( statistics from 2024.)
Recent research revealed that flytipping costs Scotland at least £11 million each year for clean-up, disposal and enforcement which local authorities cab ill-afford when they have other pressing priorities to deal with, but then again, why should these moronic idiots bother?