Taxpayer hit with fresh rubbish dispute bill for depot guards

PRIVATE security guards have been drafted in at taxpayers' expense to protect a city refuse depot during the bin dispute.

The city council has hired security teams in the wake of vandalism to vehicles where private contractors brought in to clean up the city's streets are based.

The guards are now working through the night at the Seafield depot, on Fillyside Road, amid fears of further damage to vehicles or council premises.

Three members of staff are working between 4pm and 8am, while CCTV cameras are also in use on the site. It is estimated that the operation could cost around 5,000 a month.

Gary Davidson, operations manager at Edinburgh's JSL Security, confirmed that the company had been brought in to keep watch at the former council depot where the vehicles of private companies carrying out bin duties are stored.

"We were given the brief that it was because of local vandalism to the machines," said Mr David-son. He said that he was aware that the problems came at a time when council bin men were on a work to rule but said he did not "get into the politics" of such situations.

It is understood that the reports of vandalism include a car being scratched by a key and damage to refuse vehicles.

The incidents come a fortnight after allegations of sabotage of the route of private contractors. On four separate occasions on their first night shift, large communal bins had been tipped over in different parts of the city.

A council spokeswoman said: "Due to acts of vandalism to equipment and premises it has been necessary to engage extra security detail to ensure the smooth running of our service."

Meanwhile, the city council today confirmed that trade union Unite has now officially served notice of its official industrial action, which will be "short of a strike".

It is expected that the level of disruption will be similar to that of the unofficial action, which has now been going on for six weeks.

Despite the action, city leaders insist that they can continue to keep the streets clean, after much of the backlog has been largely cleared since contractors came in a fortnight ago.

Steve Cardownie, deputy leader of the city council, said: "We are confident we will meet the challenge and be able to provide citizens of this city and visitors with a clean environment, as is our duty to do so.

"Our contingency plans were based on a worst-case scenario.

"We hoped the union would recommend approval of our proposal. We hoped that, given the union's recommended approval, the workforce would see that there was sufficient merit.

"Unfortunately, that was not the case and, depending now on the action that the unions call, we will have to meet that challenge.

"We're strong on this and we are determined that we can predict the sort of action that will be taken and have contingency plans in place as a counter-measure. But we still hope to resolve the issue by talking."