MORE people carrying out DIY and home improvement projects may have contributed to an increase in fly-tipping, according to Fife Council.

Incidents were on the rise in the South West Fife area last year, which includes Rosyth, Inverkeithing, Dalgety Bay, Aberdour, Oakley, Valleyfield and Kincardine, and councillors wanted to know why.

Safer communities manager Dawn Jamieson said there was no clear answer why fly-tipping had gone up from 411 in 2019-20 to 476 cases in 2020-21 but added: "People were working at home, people were at home during the course of the pandemic so, naturally, there's been an increase in the amount of domestic waste that people were generating.

"I know people were also carrying out DIY and home improvement projects as well so that may have contributed to the increase during the period.

"This wasn't reflected in all committee areas, in some of the areas there was a decrease in the amount of fly-tipping investigations we carried out. It's something we're looking at."

Despite the rise, fewer people were punished for illegal dumping as the team had to work in a different way during the pandemic.

She said there was a drop in the number of fixed penalties issued as, unless there was clear evidence, "our number one priority was having the waste uplifted rather than full investigations into fly-tipping".

Councillors at the South West Fife area committee were given an update last week on the activities of the safer communities team in the area during 2020-21.

Ms Jamieson said COVID had curbed many of their activities, such as road safety initiatives, but they were able to carry out more patrols.

And that was needed as there was a big jump, from 19 to 106, in anti-social behaviour incidents.

She acknowledged: "There was a significant increase in the number of anti-social behaviour cases that were dealt with by our area co-ordinators.

"While there's no doubt anti-social behaviour has increased overall, we actually dealt with all the reported cases that would usually be dealt with by housing management officers for the first six months of the pandemic."

There were also 792 complaints about environmental enforcement issues compared to 869 in 2019-20.

Reports about abandoned vehicles (196 down to 123), contaminated private gardens (51 down to 40), domestic noise nuisance (99 down to 71) and littering (21 down to six) all fell.

Pest control officers responded to 152 requests, down from 533 in the previous year, but due to staff sickness and COVID restrictions, only two of the five officers were available for most of the year.

As a result, they attended call-outs to council tenants and facilities only.

There were 76 complaints about dog-fouling, down from 91, and the number of stray dogs reported to wardens fell from 16 to eight.

Five of those were microchipped but, unfortunately, did not contain the correct details for their owners.

Two dogs were eventually reclaimed or returned to their owner and six were passed to an animal charity for assessment and rehoming.

Fourteen residents from the area were given advice regarding the control of their dog, up three from 2019-20, and eight dog control warning letters were sent, five more than the previous year.

Five dog control notices were issued, a slight improvement from seven in 2019-20.