Multi-million-pound cost of flytipping across Angus

Councils face increasingly large bill to deal with illegal dumping

The blight of flytipping is taking a devastating financial and social toll on communities across Tayside and Fife.

The Courier reveals today that illegal dumping is leaving councils with a multi-million-pound bill which is rising by the year.

Angus, Fife and Perth and Kinross have all reported increases in the last year. Angus Council dealt with 431 cases last year – up by nearly 20% on 2015.

Nationally, council crews were asked to clear up 58,000 illegal dump sites last year – more than a third higher than 2014’s total.

A major investigation into the issue also reveals the anti-social practice is having an impact on house prices, crime levels and mental health.

Environmental agencies and councils say the spike in incidents is fuelled by white van services, offering to take rubbish from households and then seeking to avoid charges at recycling sites.

Illegal fly-tipping is costing Scotland more than £100 million a year, The Courier can reveal.

An analysis of council data shows local authorities are paying out at least £11 million to clear up mountains of old furniture, broken fridges and other debris from urban and rural sites across the country.

However, experts say indirect costs – including plummeting house prices, soaring crime rates and even a strain on mental health services – are estimated at 10 times that amount.

An investigation by The Courier has found that a boom in so-called white van services on social media has been linked with the high levels of fly-tipping throughout Scotland – now at a rate of about 1,200 incidents a week.

Residents who hire pick-up services through Facebook may not know some drivers will dump their items illegally, mainly because they believe they are unlikely to get caught.

Local authorities are now working with environment watchdog Sepa to clamp down on the growing menace, with new permit schemes to encourage drivers to use legal tips.

Figures obtained by The Courier show nearly 12,700 cases of fly-tipping were reported to council teams across Tayside and Fife in the last three years.

Because each local authority records incidents differently, the numbers vary considerably from place to place, with just 14 cases reported in Dundee throughout 2016 compared to 3,232 in Fife over the same period.

Hotspots highlighted by local authorities include Kilspindle Street in Dundee and Hawkslaw Road in Leven.

Angus, Fife and Perth and Kinross have all reported increases in the last year. Perth and Kinross dealt with 710 cases in 2016, compared to 527 the year before.

Nationally, council crews were asked to clear up 58,000 illegal dump sites last year – more than a third higher than 2014’s total.

To combat this, council bosses in Perth have introduced a free waste permit scheme which they believe can save local taxpayers some £75,000 a year. It followed a survey of vehicles using the Friarton tip, which revealed a “considerable” quantity of commercial waste being illegally dumped.

However, after a bedding-in period – during which van drivers without a permit were allowed to use the tip, with a warning – council teams are bracing themselves for an “explosion” of flytipping.

Sepa is now preparing to launch an awareness campaign, aimed at highlighting the new permit scheme and warning people about unscrupulous white van men on social media.

They are encouraging people to only use drivers if they have a proper licence.

Rebecca Walker, Sepa waste and landfill tax manager said: “Householders have a responsibility to ensure their waste is disposed of without harming the environment, called a duty of care.

“People have a duty to take all reasonable measures to comply with the duty of care while the waste is in your possession and to ensure anyone else you pass it to will comply with their duty of care too.”

She urged people to ask for a waste carrier licence number, which can be checked on Sepa’s website.

“Compare their prices too,” she said. “Are they similar to other quotes or are they too cheap? If it seems too good to be true it probably is.”

Residents are also asked to keep a record of who took their waste and where they said it was going.

jabuchan@thecourier.co.uk

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Compare their prices. If it seems too good to be true it probably is