Monday August 12th 2019
In April 2019 fly tippers dumped tanks full of oil in the woods near Newbattle
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
People caught fly-tipping in Midlothian should be ‘named and shamed’, according to the county’s Provost.
Provost Peter Smaill is calling for tougher action to be taken against those caught as the number of incidents reported in the county was over 500 annually in recent years.
He will ask his fellow councillors to approve his call for Midlothian Council and Police Scotland to publicly name people caught committing the offence.
In a motion to be discussed at a meeting of the council next week, Councillor Smaill says procedures for tackling littering and fly-tipping should be toughened up.
He called on the local authority to support moves by the Scottish Government to increase fixed penalties for littering from £80 to £100 and increase the maximum fly-tipping fine to £100,000.
And he said they should, along with Police Scotland, “investigate opportunities for naming and shaming offenders in relation to fly-tipping, including both commercial and private offenders”.
However, he also called for more action to be taken to ensure local residents continued to have access to recycling centres, after reports some were being turned away from the Penicuik centre due to the “perceived” size of their cars.
He said: “Some residents have raised concerns that they have been unexpectedly turned away due to the perceived size of their vehicles, including standard people carriers, conventional four-wheel drives and private residents’ own pick-up style vehicles.
“Turning residents away who have a legitimate expectation to use the recycling facilities increases the likelihood of fly-tipping.”
His motion comes after figures released through a Freedom of Information request revealed that there were 502 incidents of reported fly-tipping in Midlothian last year, 651 in 2017 and 505 in 2016.
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