Equipment boost to help litter-picking

VOLUNTEERS involved in the council’s litterpicking campaign will have access to new equipment based at a community centre to keep the city clean.

As part of the ongoing Clean Glasgow Strategy, launched in 2007, the local authority is working in partnership with 20 other councils and Keep Scotland Beautiful in a bid to encourage residents to look after their city ahead of COP26.

The refreshed programme, updated in 2017, set out the priorities for the next five years, with a renewed focus on community participation by providing access to quality information to residents, businesses and visitors.

An update was brought before councillors this week where a council officer explained: “One of the largest programmes we will be involved in is the schools litter prevention pilot. That is on pause due to covid at the moment.

“National litter prevention group Keep Scotland Beautiful has over 20 local authorities take part in it.

“School litter seems be an issue that we are dealing with.

“We are going to work in partnership with all those other local authorities to look at what is best practice out there and what is really working.

“Part of that will be the secondary school litter prevention programme which we are going just now. We will make sure all our clean up groups are supported and can access equipment.

“We will be looking at a community hub model where people can access litter to all pickers and cleaning equipment within their own communities.”

Council officers are also monitoring the effect of the pilot scheme where re-deployable cameras have been placed to catch people who are flytipping.

A council spokeswoman added: “In terms of enforcement, some members will be aware of the pilot schemes we have in the north west of the city in relationship to re-deployable cameras.

“That camera is looking at testing some of those more prolific sites for fly-tipping. Hopefully we can look at other hotspot areas once we have information back from the cameras.

“We will be looking at fly-tipping as a crime and relaying that to residents and visitors. Looking to put a successful campaign to challenge people to stop littering.”