Increase in fly-tippers being reported by fed-up West Lothian locals

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A surge in fly-tipping reports in Linlithgow is a sign that the public is responding to a clean up campaign, it has been claimed.

The council recently launched it's Don't Waste West Lothian campaign encouraging people to report fly-tippers. A senior manager from Operational Services said that more than a dozen people had called in over two separate incidents in the ward.

That had enabled council staff to track down the culprits, members of the local area committee heard this week. Councillors professed astonishment that the number of fly-tipping enquiries in the ward had leapt from 14 in October to December 2022 to 52 in the final three months of 2023.

The resulting clean-up costs had also surged, from £947 in 2022 to more than £2,500 last year. SNP councillor Pauline Orr asked if it was possible a link could be made to reduced opening hours at the town's Recycling Centre. "Has the connection been identified by yourselves, the costs involved are quite significant?" Andy Johnston, NETs Land and Countryside Manager, told the meeting: "The one thing I would draw your attention to is that it is enquiries and not incidents.