Thursday November 27th 2025
Fly-tipping including branches from residential tree lopping and builders material was dumped at Linlithgow leisure centre and at site around the town.
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
Commercial waste dumped by travellers on a site in Linlithgow is still in place four months after they moved on.
The site, next to Linlithgow’s Xcite leisure centre on McGinley Way, was occupied over the summer holidays by an extended family of travellers carrying out work in the area.
At the time local councillor Tom Conn branded the dumping as the work of “White van man on steroids” and he urged people not to go for the cheap options when getting work done.
A report to this week’s meeting of the Linlithgow Local Area Committee said: “Contractors were arranged by Cleaner Communities to clear the illegal encampment site at Linlithgow Xcite. This is still ongoing due to the logistics of removing certain waste materials and ground conditions.”
Chairing the meeting Lib Dem councillor Sally Pattle asked why the work had been delayed, and also why the reports of vandalised trees had gone up from 2 to 19
Eirwen Hopwood from the council’s countryside team said it was down to repeat reporting. The actual number of trees damaged was only five or six, many linked to the illegal encampment.
Councillor Pattle asked: “I understand they are still trying to clear parts of that site. Is it a particular issue, is it hazardous waste?”
Eirwen replied: “Anything that perhaps has asbestos in can be quite tricky to move. Even getting access into the site can cause more damage than what you are trying to tidy up.”
Councillors in Livingston had earlier heard of similar clean up problems at the sites occupied there. A major issue for contractors was one of soggy ground conditions, with contractors having to wait for the ground to freeze to be able to take the weight of machinery to lift piles of waste.
A housing officer told the Linlithgow committee: “A travelling family arrived on the site on 20 July 2025, [Safer Neighbourhood] officers engaged with the travelling family on a daily basis and offered support to the staff at Xcite. The case was passed to our legal team however the travelling family moved off site on 10 August 2025 before legal action was taken.”
At the last meeting of the Linlithgow committee Councillor Conn pointed to commercial waste dumped by Linlithgow’s leisure centre as evidence of people doing jobs on the cheap.
The comments came after West Lothian Council revealed that “unauthorised encampments” had been responsible for tipping commercial waste in both Craigswood, Livingston and in Linlithgow.
More than 50 tonnes of commercial waste was dumped at the site in Livingston. Photos of the waste – including builders rubble and gas bottles- were supplied to the council by a team from West Lothian Litter Pickers- a volunteer group.
Councillor Conn told the last meeting of the Linlithgow committee: “This is white van man on steroids- taking jobs on the cheap and dumping their waste with no thought for local people or children who may be affected.
“The cost here is on the whole community.”
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