Council set to rid roads of litter
Written by author on March 15, 2012
Litter louts across Dumfries and Galloway are tackled today, as a clean up and clamp-down gets underway to rid the region’s roads of unsightly litter.
Dumfries and Galloway Council is taking part in the national campaign: Transport Litter Day of Action.
More than 53,000 bags of litter and rubbish need to be cleared from Scotland’s motorway and trunk road network every year. Items regularly thrown from cars onto our region’s roads include cans and bottles, fast food packaging, cigarettes and cigarette packets, and plastic carrier bags. The Council is taking part in this initiative to raise awareness of the issue in our region and to encourage drivers to help keep our roads clean. As well as local authorities, organisations taking part include Amey, BEAR Scotland, Transerve, First ScotRail, and Transport Scotland.
Through the day of action, the Council is sending a clear message that littering won’t be tolerated and highlighting the effect this has on people’s safety, the countryside, and the environment.
A recent litter audit along a sample of Scotland’s busy central-belt road network found that more than half of the roads surveyed had unacceptable litter levels (57%), with almost two thirds (71%) littered with confectionery and crisp wrappers thrown needlessly from cars, vans and trucks by drivers and passengers. Here in Dumfries and Galloway, as one of Scotland’s most rural regions, we have a large number of roads that are vital to people in the region. With such a large number of roads, the amount of littering along these roads is also significant. This is something that the Council wants to raise awareness of on Transport Day of Action.
Littering is an offence which carries a fixed penalty notice fine of £50, and offenders can be liable for a maximum penalty of £2,500 if the case goes to court.
Nick Jackson, Principal Environment Officer for Dumfries and Galloway Council said, “Littering is a national problem which continues to blight Scotland’s landscape. Not only does it damage our environment, it poses unnecessary danger to other motorists and their passengers, and it costs a huge amount to deal with what is essentially an entirely preventable problem.
“If someone drops litter while they are travelling, they might never see the impact, but every street is someone’s home and every bit of litter makes a huge difference to how people feel about the community where they live or work.
“There is no excuse for people throwing litter from their vehicles when it can be disposed of responsibly at the end of a journey. By highlighting the efforts made to keep our roads clean and safe, we hope to influence behaviour and make people think twice about needlessly littering.
“Dumfries and Galloway Council takes a very strong line on litter and fly-tipping. In the past year more than 100 people have been fined for littering and dumping rubbish in our region.”
