I recently wrote to the Scottish Government calling for more to be done to tackle the increasing scourge of fly-tipping across Fife following correspondence from the National Farmers Union Scotland reporting a significant spike in fly-tipping across the Kingdom in the last few weeks.
I wrote directly to both Fife Council and to the Scottish Government to raise the concerns, citing lack of government support and failures to follow-through with prosecutions as part of the reason for the recent upsurge in illegal dumping.
In their correspondence to me, the NFUS said:
“Unfortunately, we have seen a real spike in fly-tipping of the last week or two. We are aware of restrictions and charges when visiting recycling centres. Perhaps further restrictions could ease and reduce the fly-tipping as ultimately the council are still paying when they collect the dumped material.”
Fly-tipping is massively on the increase across Fife. The Scottish Government previously provided funding grants to local authorities for improving recycling infrastructure and services but Fife Council have told me that restrictions and charges still remain at recycling centres because the waste processing charges alone would be astronomical if they were to be removed.
With councils already struggling with budget cuts, the Scottish Government need to look at what more they can do to help local authorities provide easier access to recycling centres.
Fife Council have also told me that it has not been possible to make any headway with investigations and prosecutions because of a lack of interest from the Procurator Fiscal. I have raised this directly with the Scottish Government and asked for the matter to be investigated so that progress can be made.
Parliament recently passed new legislation that was designed to give local authorities additional enforcement powers, allowing them to crack down on fly-tipping and littering from cars. But what good are additional powers if they do not lead to more action being taken? We need the government to look into this matter more seriously, and make sure that new powers are being utilised to address the blight of fly-tipping on the Fife countryside.
Below you can find copies of the letter I wrote to the government – and their response.
Letter-to-Cab-Sec-NZE-Flytipping-07.10.24
Response-202400436169
