EXCLUSIVE: 90% people think Glasgow is a dirty city

More than 90% of people think Glasgow is a dirty city, according to a Radio Clyde News survey.

It also found more than 95% (96.2%) of people think there is more fly-tipping in Glasgow than ever before and that not enough is being done to clean it up.

We are revealing the findings of our survey into cleansing in Glasgow, which we launched on Twitter this week.

Hundreds of you responded and it comes after concerns were raised by some councilors and the GMB union that the city is facing a 'waste crisis'. Union reps have also warned that the city is on the brink of a health and safety crisis.

Half of you also told us you'd witnessed fly-tipping in the last year and 85% of people would like to see public litter bins emptied more often.

More than 78% of people also think there has been an increase in graffiti in Glasgow, with 73% of you telling us it should be cleaned off, while 9% say it should stay and 18% think it depends on the type of graffiti.

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “Glasgow spends around £100m a year on environmental protection – making it the city’s largest investment after education and social care and equal to around 33p in every £1 of Council Tax.

“However, over the last year, many of our operations have been heavily disrupted by the pandemic and necessary public health restrictions with cleansing teams still working reduced hours.

“These restrictions have also disrupted the community clean-up events that have a significant role in protecting the city’s environment.

“Ultimately, fly-tipping is a blatant form of anti-social behaviour that damages the environment, undermines communities and diverts scarce resources to clearing up after people who deliberately choose to dump their waste in unacceptable ways.

“Despite the impact of covid, staff have worked hard to deal with the anti-social behaviour committed by a minority of city residents.

“Our figures show that while there has been a slight, overall increase in fly-tipping over the course of 2020, there has been a 25% increase in the number of fly-tipping incidents cleared by our teams.

“We are also investing in a range of initiatives to improve the city’s environment with schemes focused on backcourts and lanes, local parks and open spaces and employing neighbourhood officers for every city ward to deal with the range of environmental issues that affect communities.

“The council has also brought new plans to support residents with ownership responsibilities for private lanes and rebooted the Clean Glasgow campaign with a focus on partnership working across the city. A new Resources and Recycling strategy built upon the basic principles of reducing, reusing and recycling waste has been supported by the council’s environment committee.”

“We will work with individuals, companies and other organisations to enhance the city’s environment where ever possible. However, the maintenance of private ground is ultimately the responsibility of the property owner.”

A spokesperson from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said:

“Fly-tipping is not only immoral, it is illegal and waste crime poses a risk not only to human health and the environment, but also to businesses.

"Individuals and businesses getting rid of waste should not engage the services of people who are not authorised. Services that sound too good to be true often are, and could lead to your waste being illegally fly-tipped or disposed of by other illegitimate means.

“Anyone offering to take your waste away should be able to provide a waste carrier registration number and tell you the named facility they will take the waste to – if they can’t provide this information, don’t allow them to take your waste.

"You have the responsibility to take care of your waste and if we trace it back to you we can take enforcement action against you too. We don’t want people to be put in that situation so make sure that anyone who takes your waste for disposal is properly accredited.

"We would encourage anyone that witnesses any fly-tipping incidents to report it immediately through the Dumb Dumpers website at www.dumbdumpers.org.uk or if the incident is ongoing or believed to be of a hazardous nature report the incident using our 24-hour online form at www.sepa.org.uk/report."

We'll be putting your concerns to Glasgow City Council and you can hear our exclusive interview with the head of Street Scene on Monday.

Hear all the latest news from across Glasgow and the West on the hour, every hour, at Clyde 1. Listen on FM, via our Radio Clyde app, on your DAB radio, online at Clyde1.com, or say ‘Play Clyde 1’ on your Smart Speaker.