Tyred of fly-tippers
Monday, February 18 2008
An astonishing 117 tyres were found dumped at a lay-by on the A68 at Soutra last Friday (15th February).
This is the largest single incident of dumped tyres that SB Local, part of Scottish Borders Council, has had to deal with since it was set up in January 2004.
SB Local Manager, Craig Blackie, wasn’t surprised to be told by one of his crews that they had found some abandoned tyres as dealing with such incidents is a common occurrence. But this was different. He said: “I thought they were joking. I’ve never seen fly tipping quite like this before.”
Craig added: “We removed the tyres within an hour of finding them – it’s part of our job. But it seems such a waste as we have more constructive things we could be doing. If anyone knows who did this, or saw anything that might help us identify the culprits, we’d be pleased to hear from them”.
Councillor Len Wyse, the Council’s Executive Member for environmental services, said: “Fly tipping costs the Council vast amounts of time and money, which could be better spent elsewhere. It is unfair that rate payers should be paying for the selfish actions of a few individuals. We can all do our bit to report any incidents to the appropriate authorities.”
It is illegal to dump tyres and anyone caught could be prosecuted and fined up to £40,000 or face six months in jail. Anyone who sees someone disposing of tyres illegally, or has any information, can call SB Local on 0800 376 1030, the *Dumb Dumpers Stop-line on 0845 230 4090, or report the incident online at www.dumbdumpers.org
*Dumb Dumpers is the Scottish Fly Tipping Forum, which represents a number of organisations including the Scottish Government, the National Trust for Scotland and the British Transport Police. It estimates that fly-tipping costs the Scottish taxpayer £11 million per year.
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