Yesterday, BBC UK/England and BBC Wales told us that bin collections were due to driver shortages and even mentioned Brexit in the text if not in the headlines. BBC Scotland made no mention of a bin collection problem.
You feel sure that if at least one relative or friend of any opposition politician speaks to their bin operatives, they’d have something to suggest it’s bad here too and that the SNP bin minister should resign.
Today, it’s the flu jabs (sic) delayed because the HGV drivers have gone home to somewhere in the EU. Labour’s shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth makes no mention of it and there’s no mention of Brexit anywhere in the report. BBC Scotland once more has nothing:
What does this mean?
BBC Scotland will not mention Brexit problems because they cast a negative light on the Union?
Scotland has enough lorry drivers because we’ve done something better and Sturgeon gets the credit?
SG have just announced extra funding for Glasgow City Council
To help clear 5 times daily all the pulp produced on a ever growing basis
At BBC Pacific Quay
Consultants are to be engaged to identify
If building a incinerator in adj.free land
Given that as Indy 2 approaches,consultants have already identified that
The volume produced will end up clogging up the roads in order to handle the sheer volume of non stop production of BBC rubbish
A possible permanent solution under review is to Quadruple the current licence fee but in Scotland only
Otherwise rich Tory and Unionists will have to considerably donate to avoid this
Apparently the donors agree and stress they have unlimited funds to ensure the
Massive need to at least increase such production 10 fold
Guess they have been promised their dodgy fiscal dealings shall never be investigated or revealed
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These Jocks voted 62% to remain in the EU, so, if BBC Scotland were to identify Brexit as a possible cause of problems, the would be acknowledging that maybe these woad-painted, kilted eejits had maybe got something right, and of course, that could not possibly do! They are not ‘genetically programmed’ to do things like that.
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I recently caught a glimpse of a huge flytipping site under a M80 motorway bridge at Provan.
It is well hidden from the motorway.
I looked up online and came across this recent article on the subject.
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/19519419.glasgow-gangs-use-m8-flytipping-hotspot-dump-waste-laced-deadly-asbestos/
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We see that in our street, suspect much is due to air B&B who also do not recycle anything.
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Of course many AirBnB owners do not live in the area or even in Scotland and have no commitment to an area. At the end of a season, they will often employ an unregistered group to empty the flat, and they just dump it in nearby lanes, in gaps sites, or beside the bins.
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Flytipping is a real blight and a danger across many parts of the country. Of course, the media blame it on ‘red tape’ – i.e. councils have regulations insisting that construction companies and hauliers dispose of waste in places for the purpose and to abide by safety regulations regarding things like asbestos. Of course, this entails a cost, and having to pay to dispose of items reduces profits for the owners.
So, the mainstream media fulminate against Councils and not against the companies doing the flytipping. If a company director is questioned, he diverts attention on to low level managers who employed ‘cowboys’. Many rentier property owners employ a ‘couple of men and a van’, ‘cash in hand, no questions asked’ to clear out flats and most of this ends up flytipped.
Such property owners often donate to the Tories.
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On this website at least we have talked many many times about the misinformation/distortion by our ‘friends’ in the media particularly the BBC to protect the Tories and often Brexiteers. This was perhaps most clearly illustrated today. The BBC were headlining that the EU had ‘dropped their case against AZ’ which I’m sure will be picked up by many Brexiteers as yet another example of EU waste and incompetence. However on other news channels we learn that the EU have reached agreement with AZ to secure their remaining vaccines which presumably was only possible using the leverage of the threat of more legal action.
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Interesting, links?
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Brexit transport disasters in England and Wales, but no mention of the same in Scotland. What’s Thatnicola hiding from us? As the BBC might well say.
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Transport? Any links do share, be interested to know more re England and Wales. I don’t think ‘that Nicola’ can hide anything, the media have ways and means of making sure of that!
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Completely O/T!
Just visited – a very rare event – the BBC News TV Channel, at 21.18 hours tonight, Saturday and caught its sports coverage. It included coverage of World Cup football qualifiers across Europe – piece to camera and a graphic showing the fixtures/scores. Unbelievably (?), the Scotland vs Moldova match was NO WHERE to be seen or heard!!
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They enjoy insulting the North British. Scotland? Where is that? Never heard of such a place.
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Councils (unionist) require people to give proof of local household address before people can use the recycling premises. They can charge considerable sums to pick up any large objects. If it was cheaper, freely available and affordable more people would use the services. Instead of more expensive dumping and pick ups in other areas.
Airbnb has hardly any properties. Glasgow/Edinburgh a few hundred properties all booked up. Hardly any family size accommodation at short notice. Does no one check the website. Recycling services as per usual. For any rubbish. Less than normal households. People eat out or take away, on visits or on holiday.
Glasgow/Edinburgh 2 million people. A few expensive party flats. Unaffordable. Hotels are much more expensive or out of town locations B&B with travel costs,
Scotland makes £Billions from tourism big money spinner. Millions of visitors. Some of the best scenery in the world.
Scotland is one of the best countries in the world for renewables. Wind, sea, water and solar with the technology. Makes fuel and energy cheaper and more affordable. It makes up for any recycling costs. CCS is possible but Westminster does not support funding. CCS is funded by European countries. US fracked Gas is imported into Grangemouth. UK energy policy.
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I would be careful before jumping to conclusions about who is flytipping and why. For commercial enterprises waste is privatised. There are some very large operations doing the processing now. A lot of material is recycled or used for biogas or compost or mirriad other purposes unimagined 50 years ago.
What I observe flytipped is often household waste – and those evening times pictures show carpets, domestic appliances, Jim Reeves records. The council will generally collect those, however there are often limits to the number of domestic collections provided free.
It is unfair to automatically assume its dodgy businesses doing the tipping. Which is not to say it does not happen, but perhaps the bigger problem is the disregard so many of our people have for the environment around them. I see kids dropping trash as soon as they can open a packet, and I am disgusted by the detritus revealed any time the verges of the motorway are cut. Instead of automatically taking an anti business stance, it might be better to concentrate your firepower on ignorant members of the public and their clueless weans. Perhaps we can end up with future generations who do not desire to live in a coup.
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Davidbsb, you are right to indicate that the perpetrators of flytipping are a disparate group. Many businesses are indeed, paradigms of good practice and some of these are engaged actively in recycling.
However, there are small businesses who are responsible for significant amounts of flytipping. Often these are small contractors, who uplift items from various places – for a cost, which is justified, of course, because they are providing a service – but, instead of dumping them in the appropriate places, fly-tip them.
For example, from London Road in Glasgow down towards the Clyde, there were several pretty narrow streets and lanes. Some of them had had literally thousands of old tyres dumped in them. Access down these streets to the Clyde Walkway was sometimes impassable, and from time to time, local youths would set them on fire.
I live in one of the parts of Glasgow which has a high proportion of houses of multiple occupancy and AirBnB type accommodation. From time to time, the owners of these properties (or, more often, their agents) clear the flats of furniture and fittings before re-appointing them. Often, they engage a ‘couple of men and a van’ to do this and, very often, such items are dumped in local lanes, or in gap sites.
As you say, a fair amount of flytipped litter is domestic, and I have often been totally bemused that some people have carted sacks of litter, cushions, mattresses, broken chairs, etc, out to locations and dumped these. Often some of these locations are close to the Council waste sites in Glasgow.
Litter is a problem close to secondary schools and is always associated with nearby fast food outlets. There are several issues – the number of disposable items in the basic ‘meal deal’, the lack of bins, etc, provided by the fast food operators, the lack of Council bins of sufficient capacity along the routes to and from the schools and these bins not being emptied frequently enough. Most secondary school students do not litter and put the waste items in bins, but because of the bulkiness of packaging, the bins fill quickly to overflowing and the wind and gulls disperse it. Packaging manufacturers need to make packaging more compressible.
So, it is a complex problem and requires all of us in society to rethink our attitudes and also to be active in our localities in removing rubbish and waste. When someone dumps something in our service lane, I get really annoyed, but, I and my neighbours know that if we do not get it removed quickly, other items will pile up beside it. So, albeit grumpily, my neighbours and I break it up and bin it. We also have to be pretty vigilant, too, and be ready to confront anyone we see dumping (however, we rarely see them – such as the person who from time to time during Tuesday/Wednesday hours of darkness, drives into the lane, empties his ash try and car waste bin and drives away!)
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Edinburgh council charge £5 an item to collect large unwanted items, so we see more fly tipping now. Most businesses are good at being responsible, trade waste etc, some are not though. A private nursery near us, dumps all of their rubbish into the bins, plastic bottles, nappies etc. recycling? Nope. Stayed in an air b&b once family booked it, no recycling made available.
It’s not just ‘clueless weans’ who drop litter at all, and the amount of masks we see now littering the streets is horrific.
I pick rubbish out of the local river, it’s not too bad, but any plastic is so damaging, generally, it seems humans are not getting the right message about the effects their actions have on the local and wider environment.
Believe it or not, many homes near us have a poster campaign to ‘bin the bins’ they say it’s ‘street clutter’. Maybe they don’t see the massive cars cluttering the streets! Crazy world.
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THIS is the problem, money… Once you have to pay for a thing the entire scenario changes. The lazy bar-stewards who dump a load in the lay-by because there is no easy alternative are always going to be around, but charging someone to get rid of waste within prescribed times and limits of materials is ALWAYS going to encourage fly-tipping.
Either we as a society face disposal of waste is covered by the public purse for the betterment of all or we look at public cost to clean up the mess afterwards for the betterment of all at increased cost.
I watched a video a couple of years back where a 10 Ton tipper in dead of night dumped it’s building debris materials down a lane someplace in Lancashire (caught on CCTV) and didn’t stop to be identified and thereby prosecuted. Who covered the costs of the massive cleanup, the local council – The cost of that entire operation vastly exceeded the council charge at the local tip which was closed at that time obviously.
Yes there are costs involved in handling waste, but let’s face facts, who benefits from charging when they can dump it down a back alley? THAT we have to change.
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Many councils can charge a considerable sum to uplift items. People can take them to recycling centres if they are available. Or donate to charity if acceptable.
Airbnb there are only a few hundred apartments available. Most booked up. In major municipal centres, Million pops Not a major problem. There is a shortage of relatively cheaper available accommodation. Hotels and B&B are much more costly and/or are less central. Increasing transport costs.
It is unbelievable people do not access the website before making complaint. Scotland has millions of visitors a year. A £Billion industry. People need accessible, reasonable available accommodation.
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Most of your comment makes no sense at all Gordon.
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OT, I see HMS Sarah Smith are still trying to peddle their Vaccine Passport piffle, the latest being “Covid in Scotland: Opposition increasing towards vaccine passports”…
Ironically this clip also appeared on Youtube, so that’s Tory and Labour fighting their own Scottish leaders with this nonsense…
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Is Prof John ok?
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Having a well-earned rest??
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Hope so!
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