Scotland’s local environmental quality levels ‘starting to decline’, Keep Scotland Beautiful says

Scotland's local environmental quality standards are now deteriorating after many years of improvements, environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful says.  

The charity is launching a call for urgent action to stop the deterioration of local environmental quality through national leadership and a more strategic and coordinated approach.

The key indicators of local environmental quality are litter, dog fouling, flytipping, graffiti, detritus, weed growth and flyposting.

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A report by the charity published today says that “against all these indicators, the environmental quality of Scotland is deteriorating.  The consequences of this decline, which first started around 2012 - 2013, are far-reaching due to the effects on individual health and wellbeing as well as local and national prosperity”. 

Current approaches to the problem are “rather fragmented and not sufficiently coordinated,” it says.

The charity’s report highlights the difference between the strategic priority given to local environmental quality and the high level of importance attributed to clean and green places by people across Scotland. 

The report is set to be the focus of the annual conference of Scotland’s Local Environmental Quality Network, a partnership programme for a broad range of organisations in the public and private sector who have a direct impact through their activities on their local environment.  

Derek Robertson, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “In a country where we owe so much of our economy to attracting visitors from across the globe, and where civic and social justice are so important to our national sense of wellbeing - this report makes it clear that we cannot stand by and watch whilst standards are clearly starting to decline.

“We can now confirm that deterioration has begun, and the trend will be firmly downward unless remedial strategic action is taken quickly.  

“We all have a part to play, in changing the behaviour of those in our society who act irresponsibly and create the problem, and in supporting the national effort that is required to make a real difference across the length and breadth of Scotland.  

However, we are calling for an overarching plan, which involves the public and private sectors, along with communities, to maximise the results of that effort.”

“Environmental quality needs priority attention.  The evidence outlined in this report suggests that with political will, leadership and shared strategic action, we can reverse the deterioration and make sure that action to improve the environmental quality of Scotland really is prioritised.”