Dozens of tyres have been dumped at a Renfrewshire beauty spot just days after volunteers cleared piles of illegally dumped rubbish.
The industrial waste was found scattered along the side of Sergeantlaw Road in the Gleniffer Braes on Tuesday – the same location which was strewn with household rubbish the previous week.
The discovery has left a host of Buddies, who volunteered to clean up the initial fly-tipping incident, feeling despondent.
Councillor Eddie Devine says those caught treating the local community as a dumping ground should feel the full force of the law.
Explaining fly-tippers face an unlimited fine, Cllr Devine, who represents Paisley Southeast, said: “It looks like someone that is in the trade has dumped it, it is not just someone emptying their back door.
“I need to speak to officers to find out if there is anything else that the council should be looking at to try to catch these people and prosecute them.
“As I have said before, the money that it is costing the council to clean up after these people is just astronomical, it is unbelievable.
“Until we start catching the bigger operators, then it will continue.
“People do fly-tipping as business, and that is disgraceful, but this seems to be people within the tyre trade.
“They are obviously taking money off people to change tyres and they are supposed to get rid of them elsewhere, but they are not.
“They are just ripping people off.”
The local politician says fly-tipping in the area has been going on ever since he became a councillor, some 18 years ago.
A concerned resident told the Paisley Daily Express they were shocked to see the items at the side of the road, and encouraged the public to call out anyone who does this.
Those comments are echoed by Cllr Devine ( pictured below ) who wants the council to make a statement by prosecuting those who are caught.
He said: “We have more sophisticated methods [of catching people] now and hopefully they can be used.
“A lot of these places are known ‘hotspots’ and maybe we need to start making a concerted effort of trying to catch them and prosecute them.
“And make it known that they are being prosecuted because unless people know what is being done then people will think the council, or officers, are doing nothing which is not correct.
“We need to prosecute them through the courts, no matter what the costs are, because it is cheaper to prosecute them than it is to send employees out to clear all this up.”
A spokesperson for Renfrewshire Council said: “There is no excuse for fly-tipping. It is illegal, unsightly and damages the environment. Local council taxpayers and businesses also have to foot the bill for cleaning it up.
“Our environmental taskforce are dedicated to catching fly-tippers in the act. They carry out daily proactive visits to hot spot areas and respond to reports from councillors and the public.
“Offenders should be aware that much of the evidence now collated by our environmental taskforce is volunteered from the public through eye-witness statements, dash-cam or personal CCTV footage.
“We encourage residents to report fly tipping to us and provide us with any evidence they have about who is responsible.
“We will then do everything we can to make sure they are held to account.
“We are working hard to improve our local environment in Renfrewshire so let’s work together to stop fly-tipping.”
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