One million Scots living ‘dirty communities’ blighted by ‘declining standards and neglect’

One million people in Scotland are living in “dirty” communities blighted by an increase in litter, graffiti and flytipping, according to an environmental charity.

A report by Keep Scotland Beautiful found that the country’s most deprived communities are being hit worst by the problem and that the gap in standards between them and the most affluent areas is widening.

Across the country, the problem has hit a 10-year low, the organisation said.

Chief executive Derek Robertson said: “The national picture is one of declining standards and neglect.”

The publication, described by Keep Scotland Beautiful as “damning”, is based on data from over 14,000 surveys of council areas across the country.

It measures six indicators of local environmental quality, litter, dog fouling, graffiti, flytipping, detritus and weeds, and established the national average for the period 2014-2017.

The report stated: “Overall, local environmental quality in Scotland has reached its lowest point in over a decade.

“There has been a national marked increase over the last 18 months in the presence of litter, flytipping, and graffiti in communities across Scotland.

“Encouragingly, there has been a reduction in dog fouling nationally.

“Local environmental quality is declining more severely and at a faster rate in the most deprived communities.

“The gap between the indicators for litter, flytipping and graffiti in the most deprived and the most affluent communities is widening.

“More than a million people in Scotland are now living in places where local environmental quality is declining more rapidly than the national average.”

Keep Scotland Beautiful is calling for political leadership to reverse the decline in standards.

Mr Robertson said: “This national decline has been caused by the perfect storm of austerity, unsustainable consumption, lack of civic pride and concern, and perhaps an increase in irresponsible behaviour.

“We have always had a problem, but until now we’ve been able to cope and clean up.

“It is clear that the current disjointed approach is simply not working.

“This has allowed an environmental setback to threaten our ambition for Scotland to be a socially just society.

“Improving local environmental quality is not just about reducing litter levels and removing graffiti.

“There are wider consequences of living in a poor local environment. It impacts on health and wellbeing outcomes, contributes towards people’s fear of crime and negatively impacts economic development.

“As a country which places great emphasis on the quality of our environment, we are calling for national and local action, to ensure that we do not stand by and watch whilst standards continue to decline to the point of no return.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We recognise the links between health and the environment and are working to change people’s behaviour and prevent littering.

“Through our litter strategy we are aiming to provide better information, improved facilities and services and strengthening enforcement.

“We are also supporting public, private and third sector organisations through Zero Waste Scotland, to lead their communities in the fight against litter and flytipping by developing litter prevention action plans.

“The Scottish Government has treated local government very fairly despite the cuts to the Scottish budget from the UK Government and it is up to them to allocate according to local needs, including keeping relevant council land clear of litter and roads clean.”

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