Residents at end of their tether
Readers take to social media to vent anger
Residents have blasted flytippers for blighting their communities with rubbish.
Families slammed louts who are dumping on street corners and beauty spots.
They flocked to social media to demand a crackdown on those trashing towns.
Carol Stirling took to the Express’ Facebook page to call for action.
She said: “This seems to be an on going problem in Paisley.
“It’s not just businesses affected, we have the same attitude around our houses.
“They think they can just leave it and someone else will move it.”
Trampolines, tellies, a toilet and a piano are among the rubbish fly-tipped in streets across Renfrewshire.
Dangerous asbestos has even been ditched by the roadside.
Among the punishments dumpers face are fixed penalties of £ 200, six months behind bars and a fine of up to £40,000.
Council chiefs recorded 1,426 incidents across the region last year.
Their officers were forced to clear 312 piles of household waste – including sofas, electrical goods and loos.
They lifted mountains of black bags 85 times and tyres on 39 occasions.
Industrial mess sparked call-outs 70 times, with demolition waste, asbestos, timber and tree cuttings left lying.
Lorna McMurray led calls for change after her town centre salon was targeted by yobs ditching sofas and waste.
She said: “The problem is it isn’t just on the street.
“The back courts are far worse, that’s why people have taken to dumping it on the street.
“It’s been an ongoing problem for years.”
As previously revealed in the Express, Lorna was blocked from entering her Beauty Orchard shop after couches were dumped at her front door.
She says fly-tipping is sparking health fears in Orchard Street, with concerns about vermin.
Helen Muir hit out at those passing responsibility for cleaning up.
She said: “It’s shocking that people are getting away with leaving their mess all over the place.
“They must be filthy if they can live in that.
“They throw their mess out windows and there’s just no respect for anyone living there or working there.
“The council should be ashamed that they can’t get the problem sorted.”
Local authority chiefs ploughed £2.5million into a scheme to clean up streets last year.
The fund pays for road sweeping, litter picking and gully maintenance. Extra employees have also been drafted in to tackle reports of fly-tipping, fly-posting and similar activity.
But only five fixed penalty notices were issued last year for illegal dumping.
As previously revealed in the Express, teams have been called out almost 7,000 times in the last five years. Bosses say the worst streets in the region for fly-tipping are almost all in Paisley.
Causeyside Street, Clarence Street, Espedair Street and Braehead Road all made the top 10.
The list also included Moss Road and Candren Road – both in Linwood.
Spending on street cleaning has been cut steadily between 2012 and 2017.
A local authority report last year revealed tidying dropped by 40 per cent up until 2017.
Alan Paton says on the Express Facebook page the local authority must do more to get a grip on the problem.
He said: “I really wish I could catch who is doing all this. It’s a nightmare and the council seem to be washing their hands of it.
“They know the place is due regeneration, but, in the meantime, the good people suffer.”
Renfrewshire Council is tackling flytipping with the launch of a new Report-It app.
The mobile phone programme allows users to flag up incidents to be cleared. A local authority spokesman said: “Fly- tipping is illegal, thoughtless, damaging to the local environment and costly to resolve.
“We are committed to tackling the matter and are currently reviewing our approach to fly-tipping in Renfrewshire to investigate the causes and put in place new actions to tackle the problem, including an enhanced rapid response team.
“We would urge residents and business owners to help us eradicate flytipping across Renfrewshire by disposing of their waste correctly and by reporting any further issues.”
Across Scotland, there were 170 instances of reported fly-tipping every day last year – around 61,000 every year.
It cost almost £9 million to clear 26,000 tonnes of rubbish.
● To report fly-tipping, call the council on 0300 300 0300.