Is Lanark’s fly-tipping problem getting worse?

One of the town’s civic leaders says that it has and wants the charges removed; another head of the community disagrees and calls instead for a major crackdown on the tippers.

Both, however, are in total agreement that it is a problem that will have to be solved before much of Lanark ends up looking like a public cowp.

There has been a noticeable recent rise in fly-tipping, once the scourge of the countryside on the fringes of the burgh but now growing in even the centre of the town.

So claims one of the new South Lanarkshire Council members elected in May, independent councillor Ed Archer.

He told the Gazette: “Even a few yards from where I live in Hope Street, right in the heart of the town, the site behind Lanark Library has become more and more of a cowp.

“I believe this problem has just got worse and worse since the council introduced charging last year for second annual special uplifts of bulky refuse.

“Instead of people paying to get rid of redundant big household items through the proper, channels, they are just dumping the stuff anywhere they can.”

For more on this story pick up a copy of the Lanark Gazette which is in the shops now.