CITY FLY-TIPPING
Thousands of reports of rubbish being dumped across Glasgow... with just 33 fines dished out
MORE than 20,000 flytipping reports were lodged to Glasgow City Council last year – despite just 33 fines handed out across the city.
Southside Central was the ward with the highest number of reports made in 2020 – a total of 2701.
The council carried out 2537 collections across the Gorbals, Hutchesontown, Govanhill, Queen’s Park, Crosshill and Oatlands areas, and also handed out the highest number of fixed penalty notices – 10.
Bailie Soryia Siddique said: “Southside Central having the highest number of fly-tipping reports in 2020 is concerning.
“Ten fines in this period is unacceptable. Local communities have been asking for a clean and green area. The data shows Southside Central is being let down by Glasgow City Council cleansing and enforcement.
“Adequate resources combined with education and enforcement is expected to improve living standards in the area. Year after year of cuts to Glasgow’s budget means there is less money to fund needed services. Glasgow deserves better.”
The figures come after the council suspended bulk uplifts for a large part of the year due to coronavirus. This service was resumed on a request-only basis in December, which has been “heavily used” since.
But despite the pandemic, council employees collected 19,091 of the 20,458 fly-tipping reports made throughout 2020.
The Glasgow Times obtained the figures through a Freedom of Information request which revealed that the number of collections increased by more than 20% in 2020 from the previous year.
In 2019, council staff collected 15,454 instances of fly-tipping amid 20,082 reports made by the public.
In the Langside ward, which also covers Toryglen, Battlefield, Mount Florida, northern parts of King’s Park, Cathcart and the eastern part of Shawlands, 2293 reports were made in 2020. A total of 2073 collections were carried out, but just three fines were issued.
Three fixed penalty notices were also handed out in the Pollokshields ward, which also covers Dumbreck, Bellahouston, Craigton, Corssmyloof, Strathbungo and the western part of Shawlands – where there were 2238 reports made and 2126 collections. Throughout 2020, we reported numerous instances of fly-tipping including dumped mattresses, furniture, cardboard, hundreds of tyres, and black bags full of rubbish.
Rubble was also dumped on graves at Cathcart Cemetery and a fridge was spotted in the White Cart Water river by frustrated residents in Pollok. Baillieston recorded the lowest number of reports – 299, with the council collecting 289 of these. The ward covers Barrachnie, Garrowhill, Springhill, Swinton, Wellhouse, Easthall, Daldowie and Broomhouse.
Baillieston Councillor Phillip Charles said: “While it seems positive that Baillieston has had the lowest number of fly-tipping reports of any ward in Glasgow, unfortunately I believe this is just an indication of residents’ despair at the extent of the crisis and their lack of faith in the council’s capacity or motivation to do anything about it.
“Fly-tipping is anti-social behaviour and a criminal offence. It speaks volumes about how little the council’s SNP administration values the cleanliness of our streets that less than 0.2% of reports ended up with a fine being administered. “Unfortunately, they rejected Conservative cleansing proposals at the budget which would have ameliorated the situation and it’s local people paying the price as Glasgow’s fly-tipping crisis continues to spiral out of control.”
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “Fly-tipping is a blatant form of anti-social behaviour that damages the environment, undermines communities and diverts scarce resources to clearing up after people who deliberately choose to dump their waste in unacceptable ways.
“Despite the impact of Covid, staff have worked hard to deal with the anti-social behaviour committed by a minority of city residents.
“Our figures show that while there has been a very slight increase in fly-tipping over the course of 2020, there has been a 23.5% increase in the number of fly-tipping incidents cleared by our teams. “The dispiriting part of this issue is that there is no excuse for fly-tipping as our four, major household waste recycling centres are open seven days a week. “Housing associations have also played a significant part in removing large items on behalf of their residents over the course of the pandemic and the request-only bulk uplift service has been heavily used since it resumed late last year. “Wherever we find evidence of who is responsible for individual acts of fly-tipping we will take enforcement action and we do work liaise with the police in support of prosecutions against those who commit this kind of environmental crime.”