WHEN it comes to keeping Scotland free of litter and graffiti the national picture is one of “declining standards and neglect”, according to an environmental charity.

Keep Scotland Beautiful will today publish a report exposing the scale of the issue and shows that more than one million people across the country are living in “dirty” communities, the lowest ebb in a decade.

Entitled Local Environmental Quality in Decline and based on data from surveys carried out at upwards of 14,000 sites annually over the last three years, the report says that local environmental indicators have declined once again. It also highlights that the country’s most deprived areas are being hit with the highest levels of litter, flytipping, detritus, weed growth and graffiti.

The report further suggests that the gap in standards between wealthy and less well-off areas is widening and that deprived communities bear “a disproportionate burden of negative environmental impacts”, adding: “The inequality between Scotland’s most deprived and most affluent communities will continue to grow if we do not take collective action to improve local environmental quality.”

Keep Scotland Beautiful is a charity that campaigns on a number of environmental issues aimed at changing behaviour and its chief executive, Derek Robertson, said that certain communities are being failed.

“Local environmental quality standards across Scotland have reached their lowest point in over a decade,” said Robertson. “We are failing deprived communities the most, with one million people across the country living in dirty communities blighted by an increase in litter, graffiti and flytipping.

“Shockingly, the gap in standards between Scotland’s most deprived and most affluent areas is widening — with standards falling more severely and at a faster rate in Scotland’s poorest communities. It is well established that local environmental quality is linked to poorer health and wellbeing outcomes, as well as impacting on community safety and economic development in local communities.”

Local environmental standards have been linked to health and wellbeing in the past and is believed to also impact upon community safety and economic development.

Robertson added that the decline was down to a “perfect storm” of factors and called for local and national action to address the issue to prevent it from declining further.

“The national picture is one of declining standards and neglect,” said Robertson. “This national decline has been caused by the perfect storm of austerity, unsustainable consumption, lack of civic pride and concern, and perhaps an increase in irresponsible behaviour. We have always had a problem, but until now we’ve been able to cope and clean up.

“It is clear that the current disjointed approach is simply not working. This has allowed an environmental set-back to threaten our ambition for Scotland to be a socially just society.

“As a country which places great emphasis on the quality of our environment, we are calling for national and local action, to ensure that we do not stand by and watch whilst standards continue to decline to the point of no return.”

In response a Scottish Government spokesperson said that they were aware of the link between environment and health and stressed that steps had already been taken to address these issues despite constraints on the Scottish budget.

“Through our litter strategy we are aiming to provide better information, improved facilities and services and strengthening enforcement,” they said.

“The Scottish Government has treated local government very fairly despite the cuts to the Scottish budget from the UK Government and it is up to them to allocate according to local needs, including keeping relevant council land clear of litter.”