EXCLUSIVE: 'Don't judge us on the last 12 months', say Glasgow City Council
Glasgow City Council's Head of Street Scene and Parks speaks to Radio Clyde News following concerns about the city's cleansing.
Radio Clyde News is hearing Glasgow will be cleaned up in the coming weeks, as things in Glasgow City Council's cleansing department begin to return to normal following lockdown.
Stephen Egan's the Head of Street Scene for Glasgow City Council. He's speaking exclusively to us after 90% of you said in our survey you consider Glasgow to be a 'dirty city'.
Mr Egan says cleansing is being ramped up and the city will be in top shape for COP26 in November.
He said: "In the last 12 months we've had times where people have had to self isolate, where people have had to socially distance - and that's impacted on the level of service we've been able to offer.
"We're now moving into an improving situation. We're getting the levels and the numbers we need in order to deliver the services back to work and we are confident that in the coming weeks and months that we will be able to improve the overall condition and environment of the city.
"Over the past few weeks we are heading back to normal working, it is an improving situation daily and I really confident that people will start to see an improvement.
"The city will be presentable for COP26"
Mr Egan continued: "I think the opportunity to judge whether we're doing a good or a bad job will come in the coming weeks and months. I don't think it's fair to judge us on the last 12 months baring in mind all the operational challenges we've had staffing those services over that particular period.
"I do think we need to acknowledge that there is an issue. However, we work closely with Environment Scotland and Keep Scotland Beautiful and all their data that they've shared with us shows that there has been an increase in fly-tipping across the country - it's not isolated to Glasgow.
"I do think there are areas where we need to strengthen what we do in terms of enforcement but make no mistake about it... fly-tipping in a criminal offence and where people do that within neighborhoods and communities, they're not only letting themselves down but they are letting their community down and most importantly they are letting Glasgow down.
"We are in the process of recruiting new drivers for our mechanical sweeping fleet, we are also upgrading all the machinery in our mechanical sweeping fleet over the next few weeks. We have almost got everyone back to working full operational hours - that's not only in cleansing, that's across parks and it's also across graffiti.
"The city will absolutely be presentable for COP26 and I'm sure that as a service, as a council and as a city that we're really excited that Glasgow will be in the environmental and climate spotlight."
'A dirty city'
It comes after more than 90% of people told our survey they think Glasgow is a dirty city.
Our cleansing survey 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.
It also comes after concerns were raised by some councillors 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.
'Immoral and illegal'
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."