It’s getting harder to catch fly-tippers

Officer’s warning to council over illegal dumping

Fly- tipping perpetrators are “getting more and more difficult to identify”, a council officer has warned.

Organised offenders are becoming wise to methods of tackling illegal dumping - such as the use of CCTV - and are responding by making it more difficult to track them down.

Renfrewshire Council risk manager Karen Locke led a review into the issue of fly-tipping in the area and reported her findings to the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board this week.

She said: “Perpetrators are getting more and more difficult to identify because they change plates.

“If there’s one thing I can say that has been totally fascinating to me, it’s learning how complex this matter is.

“I have become more aware of the challenges that the services face.”

The number of fly tipping complaints in Renfrewshire has increased from 1,292 in 2014/15 to 1,455 in 2017/18.

Meanwhile, the figures for the first eight months of the 2018/19 financial year stands at 957.

Erskine and Inchinnan councillor Michelle Campbell thanked Ms Locke for the report.

The report included complaint figures for the streets which have featured in the top five at various points in the last four financial years.

However, Councillor Campbell said she would like to see data from rural communities as well.

She said: “Obviously more rural communities such as Inchinnan might not have as much fly-tipping as Paisley but there’s maybe a hotspot there, so it would be quite interesting to get a comparison of more rural areas.

“It would be nice to have that so it’s more reflective of our demographic.”

Plans to roll- out a ‘ Report- It’ app so residents can inform the council of incidents of fly tipping were approved at the board.

Perpetrators are getting more difficult to identify Karen Locke