Renfrewshire Council fines company £500 for fly-tipping outside of catchment

The first £500 fine for fly-tipping has been handed out by Renfrewshire Council – but to a company based outside of the local authority.

The penalty imposed on illegal dumpers caught in the act was increased from £200 by the Scottish Government at the beginning of this year.

It didn’t take long for the council to use the revised fixed penalty notice, with a report to Tuesday’s communities and housing policy board confirming its first one was dished out in January.

Councillor Kenny MacLaren, a member of the board, fired: “We need to hammer them for as much as we can.

“It needs to be the highest fine possible, especially for those from outside of Renfrewshire.

“They’re coming in, seeing it as a dump and leaving their rubbish for someone else to clear up.

“Those companies shouldn’t be in business. They need to be hammered with the biggest fine possible.”

An update, authored by environment chief Gordon McNeil, explained: “Using captured footage, the first £500 fixed penalty notice was issued in January to a company who fly-tipped in Paisley however is based outwith the authority.”

Figures highlighting the work of the council’s bespoke environmental task force confirmed 11 fines were issued in the first two months of the year.

Councillor MacLaren, an SNP representative for Paisley Northwest, added: “This should be a warning for everybody else who treats Paisley and other parts of Renfrewshire like a dump that we’re not going to take it any more.”

However, the veteran politician also has his own ideas of how a fixed penalty notice for fly-tipping should work.

He said: “I think the fine should be based on the income of the company.

“It should be a percentage of their profits or that sort of thing. That would really hit them.

“For some £500 is nothing to them, but increasing it to that in the first instance has been a good step. I just wouldn’t stop there.”

The task force carried out 506 proactive patrols to identified hotspots from January 1 to February 29.

A total of 48 tonnes of fly-tipping was removed during that period.