Anger over green waste dumped near Hawick recycling centre

Hawick and Hermitage councillor Davie Paterson was angered after coming across several tree branches scattered just 100 yards from the town’s Mansfield Road community recycling centre.

Scottish Borders Council no longer provides garden waste collections, but the public can take their garden waste to any recycling centre for free, although registered companies have to pay.

Mr Paterson, the council’s executive member for environmental services, believes the offending waste was dumped by a company unwilling to pay to dispose of it at the centre.

He added: “It is disgraceful that someone should do this. They obviously have no pride in the town at all. They are prepared to do this in order to avoid paying for it.

“They probably realised they could have been challenged by workers at the recycling centre, and that’s why they dumped it.

“They didn’t want to pay for it being recycled.

“They must have had a vehicle to transport this waste to this location, so there would have been no problem taking it the extra 100 yards to the recycling centre. It’s a possibility a business was trying to ride piggy-back on hard-pressed council tax payers.

“I would urge people, if they have any clue about who has fly-tipped this waste to contact Scottish Borders Council or the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.”

A council spokesman said: “We offer any household which has lost its garden waste collection service a free home composter.”