City reveals £5.4m cost of private bin crews

PRIVATE contractors brought in to keep Edinburgh's streets clear during the long-running bin dispute have cost the city £5.4 million, it was revealed today.

The city council confirmed the bill for the first time after it emerged that most of the private bin men have now stood down – and those still working will stop within a week.

However, there remains no sign of an end to the dispute, which started last June, with refuse collectors still refusing to budge on plans to shake up their pay.

The council pointed out that when 'savings' like not paying its own staff overtime during the nine-month dispute are factored in, the total cost of the dispute so far is 3.1m.

It said that the changes being brought in would lead to annual savings which would cover the cost of the dispute within four years – and potentially lead to savings of up to 6.6m over the next seven years.

And city leader Jenny Dawe today insisted that the cost to the council had been "relatively small".

She said: "It is pretty much what we were reckoning on as a total. We did take the decision that we were not going to just concede when the unions said they would take action.

"That was an unusual feature of this because previous administrations only held out for about four days when there was action (over refuse pay changes)."

An unofficial "work to rule" was launched in Edinburgh in late June of last year, with members of the Unite trade union, including refuse staff and street cleaning crews, voting for an official work-to-rule and overtime ban around one month later amid claims they would lose thousands of pounds a year as a result of the proposed pay shake-up.

Today's figures are certain to enrage opposition politicians, who have speculated that the total bill for private contractors could exceed 3m.

Mark Turley, director of the council's services for communities department, said: "While the figure is significant, it is a one-off cost, which is small relative to the costs of conceding the dispute by closing the pay gap."

He added: "If private contractors had not been used then the city would have faced a very serious public health problem.

"The use of those contractors ensured that good standards of cleanliness and safety were achieved; at least in line with – or better than – those which were being achieved before the industrial action."

But Cllr Dawe confirmed that – although the contractors are currently being stood down – they may have to return at a busier time of the year, or if problems relating to the dispute flare up again.

And she insisted that there was not yet any certain signs of the dispute ending.

She said:

"We are now in a 90-day consultation period for a final resolution and we would not be standing everyone down if we expected the city's streets to again be strewn with litter."