It costs £170,000 a year to clean East Ayrshire fly tipping up

Oct 17 2008 by Stef Lach, Kilmarnock Standard

CUT it out! That’s the message we’re sending to anyone who is even thinking about dumping their rubbish at the side of the road.

Everyone in Kilmarnock is fed up with the sight of piles of junk blotting the landscape – junk that could just as easily have been taken to the local dump or collected free of charge by the council.

We’re calling on people to dispose of their garbage properly using the range of free services offered by East Ayrshire Council. And we’re also calling on those among us who are proud of where they live to shop the dumb dumpers who ruin our countryside and make a mess of our towns and villages.

Fly tipping is such a big problem in East Ayrshire that the council employs two full-time hit squads and two relief teams to deal with the mess.

Flycapture, the UK’s fly tipping database, recorded 12510 illegally discarded items that were collected by East Ayrshire Council’s hit squads in the financial year 2007 to 2008.

Of those 12510 items, 7490 were domestic household bags of rubbish. The cost to the council for collecting this trash was £166,846.

Gordon Crockatt, of the council’s outdoor amenities department, said: “I don’t understand why anyone would fly tip rubbish at the side of the road.

“There is just no need for it at all. The council’s rubbish collection will take away rubbish bags and if people have more bags to get rid of, they can just as easily drive to the amenities sites.

“I would imagine it would even take more effort to drive and find a quiet country road than it would to simply drive to the Western Road amenity site.

“And as for things like dumped furniture or electrical appliances, there is also absolutely no need for that. The council operates a free uplift service for bigger items so why people feel the need to dump them in the street is beyond me.

“I don’t understand the mentality of people that do this. It has to be down to pure laziness and the unwillingness to just make a phone call.

“But surely making a phone call takes less effort than sneaking around and fly tipping.”