THE condition of public areas continues to deteriorate. The public appear accustomed to it. Some are aggrieved but do nothing. Others will gripe and perhaps make comment via social media or take action by picking litter or adopting a local park. However, they cannot sweep the streets: that is what councils are paid to do.
Some report service defects to the appropriate body and eventually, the defect may be remedied. After making dozens of such reports and complaints, the penny usually drops. The system is broken, some say dysfunctional, with evidence of defects, widespread and perpetual.
Environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) report that over one million people in Scotland live on “filthy streets”. Councils have a legal duty within the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to ensure that such areas are kept clean and free of litter. Keeping streets clean is a public health and community wellbeing imperative, not a choice.
The Scottish Government’s annual Household Survey highlights the lack of cleanliness of neighbourhoods as the greatest matter of environmental concern, outstripping concern about drugs and drug misuse by more than twice.
The Scottish Government amended the law to enable it to take action where a council or others have failed to fulfil their legal duty to maintain clean streets. To my knowledge, this has never been used. I made such a request in respect of Aberdeenshire Council, but no action was taken.
The law also provides for an ‘aggrieved member of the public’ to petition the courts for an order requiring the council to sweep the streets. Keep Scotland Beautiful have published guidance to assist petitioners.
The process, as I found out was complex, costly and ultimately self-defeating. My group of volunteers, the largest in the country, were unsuccessful in an action against Aberdeenshire Council. The sheriff awarded costs against us: so high, we stopped operating.
In an unsuccessful case where defendant’s costs are awarded against the applicant, the cumulative costs can be in the several tens of thousands of pounds.
A recent Herald article by charity Environmental Rights Centre Scotland outlined a decision of the United Nations, Aarhus convention compliance committee (ACCC) stating that the Scottish Government is acting illegally by not ensuring members of the public can take action against a public body without the risk of it being prohibitively expensive.
KSB recently confirmed that standards of cleanliness are deteriorating. Zero Waste Scotland, the NGO used by Scottish Government, has not concluded the five-year review of the National Litter Strategy for Scotland, conceding with some degree of euphemistic spin, that it requires a rethink.
The current system is undoubtedly flawed, the evidence, literally on the streets, is incontrovertible. The Government has promised to consult on the establishment of a new environmental court. It is to be hoped that they will respond to the criticisms of the ACCC, KSB and the people of Scotland, by ensuring the streets are cleaned and they put in place a simplified, low-cost, accessible system of challenge. Sadly, I will not be holding my breath.
George Niblock spent more than five decades working in the Scottish waste management industry
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