The council has plans to introduce new machinery and crew to maintain the paths and cycleways in Edinburgh all year round.
This is in response to a demand for a new approach, and also to the budget agreed earlier this year which includes the necessary funding with £2.74 million allocated to the cleansing improvements.
The electric “walk behind” machines or compact sweepers will be used in any weather either to clear weeds and pick up leaves or to grit the pathways.
The report states: “These machines come equipped with a vacuum attachment to tackle problematic issues such as cigarette litter and also have a spray lance. Two of these sweepers have already been received and will be deployed initially in the city centre and further machines will be brought in over the course of 2023.”
Trials were undertaken in the north west of Edinburgh with a dedicated maintenance team on the off road pathways. The machines were used to provide additional coverage of paths and cycleways.
The additional crew and machinery will allow for more formalised scheduling and routing to ensure a more proactive approach. In addition as the machines have weed removal capability. This will not in itself solve the weed problem but the council confirms in the report for this meeting that it does want to reduce using chemicals and will discuss this in September.
Recruitment is due to begin this month and the teams and new machinery should be in place before the autumn.
Notwithstanding this the council will continue to work with volunteer groups to maintain any of the network of footpaths in the city where possible.
The council’s Transport and Environment Committee will meet on Thursday 15 June at 10am.
All papers are here with details of how to watch the meeting live or after the event.
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