Council promises action to boost city’s cleanliness

A dedicated graffiti removal team and free special uplift service for some residents are just two new street cleansing measures the City of Edinburgh Council is considering to be introduced this year.

A report published yesterday (14 April) to be discussed by councillors at the Transport and Environment Committee on 20 April sets out how an additional £3.078m, allocated when the local authority set its Lib-Dem budget in February, will be spent introducing these as well as several other new initiatives to keep the Capital looking at its best.

The report also updates on Edinburgh’s latest Local Environmental Audit and Management System (LEAMS) survey results, which monitor the city’s cleanliness and highlight areas for action.

As well as demonstrating continued improvement in service performance, reaching pre-Covid levels, the data shows the Capital is performing better than average when compared to similar council areas.

If agreed by committee, £530,000 will be set aside for a dedicated team of officers using specialist vehicles to focus on removing graffiti from public buildings and infrastructure with the ability to raise additional income by charging privately owned buildings for the service.

Committee will also be asked to agree to £500,000 being allocated for a means tested special uplift service, making it easier for those households in receipt of council tax reduction to use the service at no cost.

Other measures being considered are increasing the budget for gully cleaning and channel cleaning by more than 50% (an investment of £380,000), funding of £180,000 for a ‘Rapid Response Service’ to improve cleanliness in the city centre, and additional teams to focus on high density areas which have communal bins and suffer from fly tipping at a cost of £290,000.

A dedicated team to tackle approach roads into the city and rural roads at a cost of £300,000 for additional staff and equipment is also being considered. This multi-skilled team would be tasked with litter picking, mechanical sweeping, gully emptying, and verge and hedge maintenance.

The remaining £940,000 would be used for night shift operations and making sure there is always cover for essential tasks such as litter bin emptying, rapid response teams, city centre and town centre cleansing.

Labour’s Cllr Scott Arthur, Environment Convener, said: “Keeping our Capital city clean and tidy for our residents, businesses and those visiting Edinburgh is a top priority for us. We have listened to residents and businesses, and now plan to redouble our focus on cleaning up Edinburgh.

“That’s why we allocated additional funding for our street cleansing team which we set aside in our (Lib-Dem) budget in February.

“If agreed, the measures highlighted in the report will allow us to employ a dedicated team to remove graffiti as well as making sure residents on lower incomes aren’t deterred from having larger items responsibly picked up from their homes through the free uplift service we are proposing.

“We’ll also reduce flood risk by increasing the gully cleaning budget.

“I’d like to thank the street cleansing staff for their efforts in recent months, they have worked within a very limited budget to improve performance.

“The latest data shows there’s been a real improvement in service delivery, and that Edinburgh performs better than average when compared to equivalent Councils.

“This gives me confidence that deploying additional staff, vehicles and equipment throughout the city will further ensure street cleanliness continue to improve.”