Waste and cleansing services to resume in Edinburgh

Waste and cleansing services in Edinburgh are to resume after nearly two weeks of industrial action.

The city’s waste workers walked out on August 18 as part of a pay protest against local government, but they will return on Tuesday to their bin lorries and street sweepers.

It comes as strikes spread across many of Scotland’s council areas.

The strike by workers in Edinburgh was timed to coincide with the festival season, with rubbish lining the capital’s streets.

Public Health Scotland previously warned the build-up of waste could become a risk to human health, and told councils that “decontamination of public areas where bins have overflowed may be required”.

Edinburgh Council leader Cammy Day said: “All of our waste and cleansing crews will return to normal service on Tuesday.

“While they’ll be working hard to catch up on collections and making every effort to collect litter across the city, we’re expecting things to take a little while to return to normal, and I’d like to thank all those living in, working in or visiting the city for their patience.

“At first we’ll be focusing street cleansing resources on the worst affected areas of the city and to help with this we will be bringing in additional resources to supplement our in-house crews from Tuesday.

“As per Public Health Scotland’s advice, any areas that need to be decontaminated will be, as part of street cleansing duties.”

Additional resources will be deployed to support in cleaning up the city, the council said, particularly in the centre and other areas that have been most impacted by the strike.