Nothing uplifting here as garbage complaints pile in

Published on Monday 27 October 2008 09:20

COMPLAINTS about rubbish piling up in the streets and fly-tipping have shot up in the wake of the council introducing charges for special uplifts.

The number of calls to the Capital's street cleaning services has risen by 47 per cent over the last year to almost 200 a month.

The council also recorded a big jump in complaints about rubbish being dumped next to wheelie bins, rising more than six-fold from 353 in 2004 to 2371 last year.

The increase has been put down to the council's controversial decision to introduce a special uplift charge last year, although it has pointed to independently-verified street cleanliness scores which show an improvement year-on-year in the city since 2001.

Meadows and Morningside councillor Mark McInnes said: "People are telling me there has been a big rise in fly-tipping, both next to bins and other areas, and it is a real problem.

"From the correspondence I get, there certainly seems to be a slow response to these calls and I think some people will have had to phone two or threes times.

"I am very concerned at the trend and a part of that is definitely issues with the 'special uplift' policy. A lot of people are simply not aware the first uplift is free so just dump it on the streets."

The latest Keep Scotland Beautiful's Cleanliness Index Monitoring System (CIMS) gave Edinburgh a score of 69 out of 100 in June, three points down on the previous quarter.

Leith, Sighthill and Gorgie have the biggest litter problems, according to the survey, while Colinton/Fairmilehead had the cleanest streets, with a mark of 83.

Councillor Gordon Munro, who has long campaigned about the problems with litter in his Leith ward, said: "I think we have a real problem with litter in certain parts of the city.

"The last cleanliness stats showed the city is down on where it should be. I think we need to go back to the old system where there was the barrow rounds in Leith where I think there is a lot more reassurances that the job is being done properly."

The number of calls to the council's rubbish line dropped from 1822 in 2005/06 to 1590 in 2006/07, but jumped to 2351 last year.

Council workers dealt with 9387 fly-tipping incidents last year – up from 6659 in 2004.

Officials were unable to provide details on the number of requests made for special uplifts since the charges were introduced.

A council spokeswoman said: "These figures are made up of a number of calls we receive, therefore they could include anything from someone reporting fly-tipping to an actual complaint about street cleanliness.

"A legitimate measure of street cleanliness is the independently assessed CIMS scores, which for the last seven years has shown an improvement year-on-year.

"We are aware of some problem areas and extra money was allocated to street cleaning in an effort to make improvements."