Sighthill-Gorgie has been identified as the worst ward in Edinburgh for fly-tipping and dumping statistics recently released by Edinburgh City Council. City council data shows that residents in the ward had logged 1,170 requests for fly-tipped or dumped items to be removed from January to November in 2020. The Leith Walk ward was a very distant second with 784 reports in the last year - making the Sightill-Gorgie area a clear leader throughout the Capital. Around 12 percent of all reported incidents have come from the west Edinburgh ward and local independent councillor, Ashley Graczyk, who represents the area, has been left furious. Cllr Graczyk was behind the launch of ‘Keep Gorgie Clean’ - a campaign to raise awareness and support for local residents in dealing with waste and litter in their community. She said: “Residents are sick and tired of unscrupulous individuals using our home as a dumping ground for personal and commercial waste. "The situation has deteriorated rapidly in recent months, and we now see multiple reports of fly-tipping every single day: around 25 per week in my ward alone. We are the worst-affected area of the city by far, and I am demanding that the council provide additional resources to tackle this serious issue as a priority. “We clearly have the biggest issue with fly-tipping in the whole city and the resources allocated by the Council to tackle the problem are completely inadequate. As usual, other areas get more resources to deal with the issue, and Sighthill-Gorgie is left high and dry." "We need more enforcement action specifically directed to our area including patrols, as well as the deployment of CCTV at dumping hotspots to combat the problem.” Corstorphine and Murrayfield is the least impacted ward in Edinburgh with only 166 reported cases. But questions have arisen as to how other wards can learn from the Pentland Hills ward, who were able to pull off a massive reduction in cases between 2019 to 2020 - they saw incidents drop from 1,082 in 2019 to 665 in 2020. The council was asked how the Pentland Hills ward had been so successful in reducing fly-tipping and if they would be willing to issue extra resources but have failed to respond to our request for comment. Published in the Edinburgh News | 14th January 2021
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