Fly-tippers escape punishment for dumping rubbish in Scotland '99% of the time'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Fly-tippers escape punishment for illegally dumping their rubbish in Scotland almost 99 per cent of the time, shock figures suggest.There were more than 200,000 reports of debris being abandoned over the last three years but just 2,467 fines were handed out - and only 45 cases were referred to prosecutors.The figures were obtained by the Scottish Lib Dems after the party asked each of the country's 32 councils for their records on fly-tipping.Willie Rennie, the party's communities spokesman, said local authorities had to use powers available to them to clamp down on reckless Scots who dump rubbish without thinking."We need to see local authorities using the powers at their disposal to clamp down on this disgusting behaviour and ensure that repeat offenders especially feel the full force of the law," the Fife MSP said."Littering might as well be legal under this SNP government.

From remote beauty spots to busy cities, these figures show that fly-tipping is a blight on our beautiful country. Not only that but it can prove catastrophic for animals, plants and soil."Glasgow City Council reported the highest number of incidents with 67,219 but issued just 209 fines.Edinburgh City Council recorded 35,038 in the three-year period, while Fife Council logged 11,711, according to the freedom of information data.Some councils, such as Edinburgh, did not hold data on the number of fines handed out and others did not hold data on how many convictions were secured, if any.Only six of the local authorities in Scotland had passed cases to the Procurator Fiscal and only East Dunbartonshire had obtained a conviction.Rennie said: "The pandemic and the bin strikes disrupted refuse collections but there is also a fundamental unfairness in