On BBC Breakfast this morning and reported across their regional websites, England’s fly-tipping crisis returns to MSM.
As recently as August this year, we had this kind of thing:
On further investigation of the issue across the EU, England stands out for the volume and granularity of reported small-scale incidents and the public/media attention they receive but higher reported figures in England partly reflect better detection and reporting rather than uniquely worse behaviour.
You cannot miss the obvious parallels with drug death figures in Scotland, better recorded to suggest it is the ‘drug death capital of Europe.’ That claim is of course similarly ‘rubbish.’
Comparison of fly-tipping levels between England and Scotland too, cannot be simply made but one thing can.
BBC UK have been reporting 517 incidents of fly tipping, 11 of them ‘super-sites’ like the one above, in England.
BBC Scotland, Scottish Labour and other media, you can be sure, have been scouring the country for something they can use to confirm that things are just as bad here.
Nothing so far. Could this be why?
So a major increase in interventions by police and Sepa inspectors in one year? Newsworthy but not for them?
Comparisons with England where all 11 super-sites are?
I’ll do the last bullet point first. Scotland’s more centralised approach with only one police force is inevitably more efficient.
Back to the interventions/closing down of sites – 167 in Scotland last year so, pro rata, you might expect 1 670 in England but it was only 743, less than half the level of such crucial activity.
How is this possible?
Scotland has roughly 25–30% more police officers per 1,000 population than England & Wales (e.g., ~3.0 vs. ~2.4 per 1,000). This reflects Scotland’s single national force (Police Scotland) structure since 2013, which has historically aimed for higher per-capita resourcing.
Sources:
- https://beta.sepa.scot/media/gz5layr4/sepa-annual-report-accounts-2024-2025.pdf
- https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/19/how-were-tackling-illegal-waste-dumping-and-protecting-our-environment
- https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00634/SN00634.pdf
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They should send for the self appointed fly tipping expert Glasgow based GMB Trade Union Convenor , Chris Mitchell.
He will reassure them , the media in England, that Scotland, especially Govanhill, is the worse within the UK , indeed he would probably nominate it as being ‘the fly tipping capital of Europe’.
He also often says who is to blame – not the fly tippers, but apparently it’s the the SNP to blame, as in those in charge as the Glasgow City council and also as the Scottish government.
Of course all eyes should be diverted and all minds should be closed to the fact that his Union’s (GMB) current and historical political alliance and allegiance is with opponents of the SNP , namely the Labour party.
(So when Labour were previously in charge of Glasgow Council , then of course Glasgow would have been spick and span with not one iota of litter or fly tipped rubbish to be seen , apparently).
The fact that he , Mitchell , always seeks to blame the SNP on this matter is apparently not connected to his and his Union’s politically partisan position on (against) the SNP.
(We all saw the photos of Chris Mitchell & Anas Sarwar in Glasgow , standing next to bins during COP26 – during what was a tactically organised bin strike -just to try to show the world (or those visiting Glasgow for COP26) that Glasgow was a #S****Hole, so then all you potential tourists do not come here as a visitor in the future – it was like an alternate universe version of a Scottish Tourist Board message).
Liz S
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We have a street in our area which is often flytipped in. Usually it is small scale and, usually, it is furniture of some kind. There are rented properties there and, after tenants have left, the landlords clear the flats and it is from these we get the fly tipping, despite the recycling centre being about 1 mile away.
When I and others notice some fly tipping we report it on the Council app and it is usually lifted the next day.
However, we have residents who blame the Council for fly tipping. Their argument is that if the Council collected for free then fly tipping would not happen. In effect, they are absolving the perpetrators of responsibility. I think this attitude is largely conditioned by the continual media blaming of Councils.
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@ Alasdair Macdonald
“In effect, they are absolving the perpetrators of responsibility. I think this attitude is largely conditioned by the continual media blaming of Councils”.
Spot on, I totally agree.
Liz S
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