Bins backlash as complaints to council hit six every hour

FAMILIES are bombarding bosses at a Scots council with six complaints every hour about overflowing bins and missed collections.

The catalogue of angry grievances in Edinburgh is the latest sign of a growing revolt against the abolition of weekly bin collections.

With one Scottish local authority expected to become the first in the UK to introduce monthly bin pick-ups, there are fears of rats, fly-tipping and stinking rubbish piling up in the streets.

In Edinburgh, tens of thousands of residents have been forced to put general rubbish in significantly smaller wheelie bins, which hold only five bags from a typical kitchen bin compared with eight held by traditional wheelie bins. Collections are only fortnightly, with the original larger bins now designated for recycling and emptied every two weeks.

However, bins often remain on driveways in some parts of the city for days on end because of missed collections.

Complaints about overflowing or missed bins have soared over the past year by a third between July last year and last month, up from 40,309 to 53,862.

Edinburgh Green Party leader Steve Burgess said: ‘These are staggering figures and show the sheer scale of the problem which residents have had to put up with.

‘That is only the tip of the iceberg. For every complaint made there are bins which just go uncollected as residents resign themselves to another missed day.

‘Over the last three years we have been told that missed collections were a result of a new service bedding in. Well, the service has been changed for a while now, and the fact that missed collections are still increasing so dramatically is simply not good enough.’

Weekly waste collections have been axed by every mainland Scottish council, with five set to empty bins every three weeks and one doing so already. Falkirk Council will become the first British local authority to introduce monthly collections in October.

A small-scale trial of monthly collections is under way in Fife, a move that has forced more than 160 households to plead for extra bins or more frequent collections. Despite this, Fife Council is understood to be determined to roll the scheme out across the region.

The Mail recently revealed that petitions set up across Scotland calling for the re-introduction of more frequent rubbish collections have gathered 17,000 signatures.

The Scottish Government’s own waste quango, Zero Waste Scotland, has confirmed householders’ fears after finding maggots, flies and mites in bins left for four weeks. It warned of the risk of salmonella from rubbish left for so long.

City of Edinburgh Council transport convener Lesley Hinds said: ‘We are well aware how important an issue refuse collection is and the council is committed to delivering an efficient service for the people of Edinburgh.

‘We’re always working to make significant improvements to the service. At a recent transport and environment committee all elected members, including the Green group, were updated on these efforts... I have also instructed the head of environment to come forward with an action plan to reduce waste complaints.

‘The current level of complaints is unacceptable but, that said, this figure only accounts for less than 0.2 per cent of our collections, which have increased significantly due to the expansion of recycling services over recent years.

‘We’re now at a point where we’re recycling almost 45 per cent of our waste, despite a challenging budget, and are making improvements to kerbside recycling, communal bins and trade waste, which is further contributing to this.

‘It is worth noting that more than one complaint may relate to the same issue, fly-tipping or bins not collected... so these figures should be taken with a pinch of salt.’

‘Only the tip of the iceberg’ ‘Taken with a pinch of salt’