South Lanarkshire councillors approved a new five-year strategy to tackle litter and fly-tipping.
It was presented to elected members at today’s (August 31) Climate Change and Sustainability Committee meeting, and sets out how the council plans to develop a range of initiatives to prevent littering, dog fouling and fly-tipping.
The strategy builds on a range of existing initiatives as well as using a few national campaigns promoted by organisations such as Keep Scotland Beautiful and Zero Waste Scotland, whilst taking on board future guidance from the new National Litter and Fly-Tipping Strategy which is due for publication later this year.
There are three broad themes in the strategy with 15 objectives; and the themes are Education, Engagement and Enforcement.
There are six objectives to tackle the issue through education, including providing information, awareness and guidance to the community, running local campaigns along with promotion of national content through Keep Scotland Beautiful and Zero Waste Scotland and providing advice on duty of care requirements to residents.
There are five objectives in the engagement theme, including developing a litter bin plan with mapping of current locations and future innovations, delivering an efficient and effective street cleansing service using zoning information and increasing the use of preventative measures like CCTV and other trials.
For the enforcement theme, there are four objectives, including providing guidance on current legislation on enforcement and engaging with other local authorities to establish consistency and best practice.
Although councillors welcomed the strategy, some highlighted gaps in the document.
Councillor Mo Razzaq questioned whether or not the council had additional plans to launch the depository scheme.
He said: “The issue of litter not only has financial costs, but there are costs to the environment and wildlife as well.
“I’m disappointed is that there’s no mention of depository scheme in the strategy. This will kick in 2023, there’s a lack of clarity around this, concerns that the council is not prepared for this – real concerns we have 11 months before this kicks off, this needs to be prepared in advance, there’s been no discussions on this, I think this will come back to bite us”
Council officers responded to these concerns and stated that this isn’t an issue South Lanarkshire are tackling alone and the council is in talks with other local authorities to launch plans for the future scheme.
Councillor Bert Thomson welcomed the enforcement theme, and he said: “One thing in the strategy that jumped out at me is the enforcement, that’s something that we need, I don’t think its been working so far and we need to clamp down, maybe heavier fines, we need a real deterrent.”
Councillor Ross Clark questioned publicity and how the council planned to reach more audiences to get the message across.
He said: “Multiple times in the strategy, the council mentioned it would use its social media platforms to target education, will we use paid advertisements in order to reach a larger audience?”
Council officers couldn’t confirm whether paid advertisements would be used but there will be methodology in plans to expand the audience.
The strategy will now go through a design process to introduce infographics and images for ease of reading and to ensure the document is user friendly.
The council will continue to work with partners and communities to develop appropriate actions with a key focus on working collaboratively to achieve change.
And did you know Lanarkshire Live is on Facebook? Why not head to our page and give us a like and share.
*Don't miss t he latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here .
