A COWDENBEATH councillor has called for common sense to be used at Fife’s recycling centres after he was turned away despite no other cars being there.

Councillor Darren Watt was speaking at last week’s council meeting where he said he had collected six bags worth of rubbish from the town’s war memorial.

He decided to ‘chance his arm’ at taking the rubbish to the recycling point but was turned away as he did not have an appointment – despite not a single other person being there.

He said: ““It's not far from me so I decided to visit it one morning and saw the state of the place, the littering, the bottles and smashed glass, it was not something on a Saturday I could just leave and hope that the council would pick it up on Monday morning.

“So I took up my council brush that I received from safer communities at one point, along with my council bin bags that I received and council litter pickers.

I took a couple of hours to pick it up and bag it up and thought I would chance my arm and go up to Cowdenbeath recycling centre which was just a couple of hundred yards away.

“I said at the gate ‘Listen I know I have not booked in, I know it's Covid rules’ and all the rest of it and there was literally no other cars there.

“I was refused entry because of Covid rules. I am not criticising the staff in any way, they were doing their job, but does it not sum up the ridiculousness?

“I had six bags of waste from Fife Council land, collected by a Fife Council councillor using Fife Council equipment and I can't dispose of it at a Fife Council facility.

“That's the point we've got to. Let’s use some common sense and get it sorted and provide the public with a service they clearly need and demand.”

Some have argued that scrapping the booking system for Fife Council's recycling centres will help cut down on a "surge" in the illegal dumping of rubbish across the Kingdom.

While the environment spokesperson said it was a "fallacy" that getting rid of it would solve the fly-tipping problem, a decision to remove it is likely to come next month.

Tory councillor for the West Fife villages, Mino Manekshaw, tabled a motion that said delays in getting a slot to get rid of the waste, and the fact the booking system asks for "unnecessary" personal information, could be "significant contributory factors in the surge in fly-tipping".

He said potential users were put off and added: "So what else can they do with their domestic waste? Sadly the answer is clear and all around us. They fly tip.

"Some people seemingly can't hold on to an empty plastic water bottle long enough to get it into a bin, it is straight over the closest hedge or flung out of a car window for someone else to deal with."

He said the system had been necessary during lockdown but was no longer needed.

Fellow Tory councillor, Dave Dempsey, added: "There will be people that will fly-tip regardless but there will be people whose judgement, between taking it to the recycling centre and chucking it over a fence, will have been adversely affected by the imposition of this booking system.

"And if even one person fly tips a pile of junk because of that, then that is a failure of the system and something to be regretted.

"We don't need this booking system."

The council's environment spokesperson, Cllr Ross Vettraino, said fly-tipping had been going on in Fife long before the pandemic and the booking system.

He added: "It is a popular fallacy that removing it will solve the issue of illegal dumping.

"There is no doubt the concerns about the booking system and other measures that are in place must be addressed which is why officers are reviewing the entire situation and consulting with users of the centres."

Cllr Vettraino's amendment, which said a comprehensive report will be prepared by officers ahead of a special meeting next month, was passed after a vote.