Bin lorry breakdowns cause bags of trouble

Published on Thursday 7 April 2005 11:54

THE collection of rubbish from giant communal wheelie bins has been thrown into chaos after four out of five state-of-the-art bin lorries broke down.

Red-faced council officials admitted the break downs have led to collections being cancelled, leaving rubbish to pile up on pavements.

The council is understood to have paid 1.13 million for four of the vehicles and 1200 containers when they were brought in.

Areas hit by the breakdowns include Jock’s Lodge and Marchmont, and streets including Piershill Square East, Easter Road, Willowbrae Road, and Abercorn Road.

A city council spokeswoman today said the lorries had been repaired and were now back on the road, and that binmen were working hard in a bid to clear the backlog by the weekend.

She said rubbish in the worst affected areas, such as Jock’s Lodge, would be cleared first, while collections from Bruntsfield, Polwarth, Morningside and Comiston would all be a day late.

All four lorries had been off the road since last Friday, each one hit with a problem with the mechanical arm used to lift the bins and tip rubbish into the vehicles.

Engineers were brought in to fix the problems, but the council had warned they did not know how long repairs would take.

John Stevenson, city of Edinburgh branch secretary for Unison, the public sector union, said: "Unison members are working hard to make up for this problem. Budgets are tight enough without being wasted on vehicles which are obviously not fit for the job."

Councillor Mark McInnes, the city’s Tory environment spokesman, said: "This could damage basic health and safety, and tarnish the image and corporate brand of Edinburgh.

"I find it incredible an organisation the size of the council does not have a contingency plan in place for such breakdowns.

"This is a core service and more needs to be done to ensure residents get value for money."

The council spokeswoman said: "The ones we’ve got currently have not proved to be reliable, which is not good. Our advice to people is to keep putting refuse out in the normal manner - if the bins are full put black bags beside them. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

However, it comes as little comfort to residents who fear the rubbish outside their homes is becoming a health hazard. Clare Kirkland, 60, of Piershill Square East, said: "No-one knows what is going on. We thought the binmen were on strike. There are rats running around the place - my Jack Russell, Lady, caught one. Some of my neighbours have told me their houses are infested with mice. There are dozens of black bags, which could not fit in the bins, lining the pavement, along with thrown-away food and litter."

Residents in Piershill Square East claim local authority workers have so far missed three collections, normally carried out on Tuesdays and Fridays, leaving six communal bins overflowing with rubbish.

Up to 15 communal bins have also been filled to the brim and surrounded by black bags in the Jock’s Lodge area, near Holyrood Park.

One resident said rubbish has often been collected a day or more late since October, but the current problems are the worst people in the area have had to endure.

David Black, 59, of Kenmure Avenue, said: "The collections are supposed to be on Tuesdays and Fridays, but the majority of the time they fail to come on the correct day. But the situation has got worse. The bin bags at the bottom of Abercorn Road were supposed to be collected on Friday - they weren’t. I looked to see if they would be collected on Tuesday - they weren’t. There must be at least six dozen bin bags lying around in the area now."