by Donald Turvill, Local Democracy Reporter
The number of bins in Edinburgh’s city centre is set to double under plans by the council to increase its waste and cleansing budget by more than £4 million in a bid to clean up the capital.
The ‘wish list’ drawn up by the authority’s Labour administration includes doubling the number of bins in the city centre, hiring 55 additional street cleansers and the establishment of a new graffiti task force.
It comes just weeks after the council’s refuse staff went on strike over a pay dispute leaving the city’s streets strewn with litter and bins overflowing during peak festival season.
Cllr Ross McKenzie, Labour, said there was “immense frustration” from workers on picket lines about their workload being affected by “cuts that the services faced over the last decade”.
“It’s important to remember when we look around at the state of our city that it’s cuts coming to local government that are primarily responsible.”
A report to the Transport and Environment committee on Thursday noted that Glasgow City Council spends £7.30 more per person on street cleansing than Edinburgh does.
And according to results of Environmental Audit and Management System (LEAMS) surveys, general cleanliness of city “has reduced markedly over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
“The LEAMS results clearly show a number of challenges for the service to tackle in order to improve cleanliness across the city,” the report said.
As well as new measures subject to councillors agreeing to allocate an additional £4.48 million to the existing £12.4 million waste and cleansing budget next year, the committee voted to introduce some changes to the service now.
These changes will include:
- Street cleaners with barrows cleaning town centres and the city centre “minimum of three times each day”
- Setting up a ‘specialist services team’ that will operate separately from the core cleansing service and will focus on activities such as graffiti removal from public buildings, bridge and street washing, washing closes and courtyards, litter bin repair and replacement and fly tipping and bulk uplifts
- Establishing a ‘rapid response team’ to focus on reported jobs requiring immediate response such as spills or road traffic accidents
In addition, businesses and traders will be told to keep shop frontages tidy through ‘Street Litter Control Notices’ which are served where there is a persistent problem with litter. Those who do not comply can be fined up to £2,500.
The report said: “The council has never issued a Street Litter Control notice despite there being particular locations that cause regular cleansing issues. It is recommended that Committee approves the use of notices when deemed appropriate to do so.”
If extra cash is agreed by members for 2023/24, the improvements to city cleansing and waste will include:
- A scheduled bin cleaning programme being set up comprising a specialised bin washing vehicle and crew
- A fully resourced graffiti team
- Doubling the number of litter bins in the city centre to 700 alongside “an annual refurbishment programme across all litter bins in the city
- An annual deep clean of Edinburghwith cleaning of pavements and street furniture, tackling issues such as grease build ups and pavement staining, as well as fly posting
- Means testing the special uplift service similar to garden waste so customers in receipt of Council Tax Reduction would qualify for a free uplift
- Quarterly litter picking, grass cutting and sweeping on approach roads
- Hiring 55 extra cleansing staff at a cost of £2,030,000 per annum
Cllr Scott Arthur, convener of the Transport and Environment committee said: “I welcome this report, it accepts what we all know in that street cleanliness in Edinburgh isn’t quite where we want it to be and that’s something that frustrates us, particularly when visitors raise it.
“Also for residents as well, for people living on streets where there is issues around communal bins and litter bins – it can be really frustrating for them and it brings down them personally and also their neighbourhood. It’s a really important issue.”
He said it is “not about doing more of the same” but rather “doing things a little bit differently”.
Cllr Arthur added: “It’s about investing in staff, systems and also hardware.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency: funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector, and used by qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
