An issue I have had many complaints about in recent months is the extent of fly-tipping or the dumping of old furniture and other items in parts of the West End. At meetings of the West End local community planning partnership, Tayside Fire and Rescue has highlighted that on tenement stairwells, discarded items of furniture present a real fire hazard, and fly-tipping generally is a source of complaint from the vast majority of residents who wish the area to be kept in a nice condition.
I am most grateful to the Waste Management Department who, earlier this week and at my request, removed fly-tipping in the Pitfour Street area - this is just one of many dozens of residents' fly-tipping complaints I have raised with the department in the past few months. I do have to say that the City Council's Waste Management Department is extremely proactive and helpful at reacting to such complaints.
At a recent meeting of the Housing and Environmental Services Committee, I put forward a motion to seek a review of the special collections charge to see if the way in which the council deals with bulky uplifts could be improved, to reduce the instances of fly-tipping. The issue is a city-wide one, not just a concern for the West End.
The bulky uplifts charge was last looked at in detail by a working group around 2000, just before I was elected to the City Council. In the intervening years, the charge has increased significantly and I feel that a review is now needed. The SNP Housing & Environment Convener, in all fairness, agreed to meet with myself and the Head of Waste Management to look further at the issue and I have suggested that the other council political groups are invited to participate in discussions. These are planned to take place in the next few weeks. I think every effort must be made to tackle fly-tipping in Dundee and an all-party consensus approach is undoubtedly the way forward.