The Scottish Conservatives have launched a new campaign to tackle fly tipping.
Last year, Police Scotland recorded just 61 fly tipping offences even though environmental bodies suggesting the true total is more than 60,000.
The Scottish Conservative campaign, led by Margaret Mitchell MSP will tackle the scourge of fly tipping by strengthening Scottish legislation and increasing the use of Community Payback Orders for those who fail to pay fines.
Currently anyone convicted of fly tipping would face a fine of up to £40,000. If the fine is not paid, the Scottish Conservatives would encourage the use of a Community Payback Order which would include an unpaid work element of clearing up a fly tip – potentially the mess they themselves had created.
The Scottish Conservatives will give Scottish local authorities the same powers as their counterparts in England & Wales which would allow them to recover fly tip clean-up costs and allow vehicles used to dump waste to be seized.
Miles, Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian said: “Fly tipping is bad for the environment and can pose a real hazard to local communities.
“The fall in the number of recorded fly tipping offences shows that SNP Ministers are simply not doing enough tot tackle the problem.
“Scottish Conservatives have proposed giving local authorities the powers make perpetrators clean up after themselves. This has the potential to deter people from fly tipping and also reduce the cost to councils for clean-up costs.”
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