Author: davepickering

Two local tenants groups are to take their protest over bin collection changes right to the council’s door – literally. Tenants and Residents in Pilton and recently-formed Tenants and Residents in Muirhouse will be dumping black bags at the North Neighbourhood Office in West Pilton Gardens on Monday morning.

A spokesperson for the groups said: “We are taking action against the chaos caused by the Council’s mismanagement of the changes to refuse collection. Many residents don’t have recycling bins yet, and some areas don’t even have enough green wheelie bins. It has led to rubbish piling up in our streets, and we have told the Council that they need to sort this situation out. However, the Council is not listening to residents concerns so we are forced to take further action.”

The groups are inviting local residents to join the protest outside the Local Office at 9.30 on Monday morning – and encourage them to bring a few bags of rubbish of their own to dump outside the office.

There’s no doubt changes introduced to refuse collection – particularly the move to fortnightly bin pickups – has angered many residents, but after initial ‘teething problems’ the new system has settled down and that the sight (and smell) of piles of uncollected refuse is over. Improving? Not so, say the protest group.

TRIP secretary Jon Black, one of the protest organisers, said:  “Every week bins are overflowing, and the situation is getting worse not better. We demand that the council re-introduce weekly collections until people have received their recycling bins, and recycling rates are improved. We want the council to clear up all the rubbish that has been missed in our area.”

Councillor Lesley Hinds is convener of the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee. She said that fortnightly collections were introduced to encourage households to use recycling services available and reduce the amount of rubbish being sent to landfill.

She added: “In Muirhouse and Pilton, recycling advisers have been down twice in the last few months to speak to residents and will continue to do so in the coming months. After discussion with the local community we are looking to put in more recycling points in an effort to encourage more recycling, but people must take responsibility for the amount of waste they produce. I know there have been issues with the implementation of the new service and we need to get that right first, but I hope everyone agrees with what we are trying to achieve.”

What’s your view? Is the system improving or is the council talking rubbish? 

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The city council will only use agency staff to empty bins in emergencies, North Edinburgh campaigners have been told. The assurance came from Councillor Lesley Hinds in response to questions posed by local campaign group North Edinburgh Fights Back.

The group had challenged council leaders over the use of private contractors in the refuse collection service. Councillor Hinds, who chairs the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee, responded: ” I have had  several meetings with the Director of Services for Communities and now have an  assurance that within the next few weeks, agency staff will not be used in the  cleansing area except in emergency use.  I wish to see permanent staff employed in cleansing.”

She went on: “You will be aware that the Labour Group on the Council opposed ABM (Alternative Business Model) from the beginning and voted on many occasions to stop the privatisation of council services. During this ABM process an in-house bid was submitted, which included changes to how the service was to be delivered. I had a meeting, at my request, with he shop stewards from Unite and we agreed a number of actions we can take to ensure we have permanent staff employed with good terms and conditions.”

A spokesperson for North Edinburgh Fights Back said: “We welcome Councillor Hinds’ statement but we will continue to monitor the situation.”