The Role of Local Authorities
Their main roles are:
- Ensuring local air quality meets national standards and taking action to improve air quality where standards are not met. This may involve addressing pollution from transport sources, as well as working in partnership with SEPA to address relevant industrial emissions
- Inspecting their areas to identify areas of contaminated land and making sure sites that are causing health or environmental risks are cleaned up. Cleaning up some types of site is the responsibility of SEPA
- Collecting and disposing of household waste. Implementing measures to reduce waste and increase recycling, in partnership with the Scottish Government and SEPA
- Dealing with complaints related to statutory nuisance issues such as noise and odour
- Taking action to control litter, clean up graffiti and address dog fouling
- Controlling development through the land use planning system. This often involves assessment of environment and pollution control issues
- Regulatory action for identifying and remediating contaminated land.
Contact details for local authorities can normally be found in the Yellow Pages and other directories.
Contact details for all Scottish local authorities are provided on the CoSLA website.