'I pay council tax for this?' - readers' comments on Edinburgh's dirty streets

Edinburgh City Council has been accused of leaving the Capital’s streets in disrepair – with one MSP saying “the state of Edinburgh’s streets are a disgrace”– while council chiefs ask the city’s residents to “please bear with us”.
The city council is under pressure over the state of Edinburgh’s streetsThe city council is under pressure over the state of Edinburgh’s streets
The city council is under pressure over the state of Edinburgh’s streets

Michelle Dimmock: It is a disgrace. These are the basics! I went to York recently – my word. It’s clean. The payments and roads are amazing. They pay a really reasonable council tax. What a contrast. I was shocked.

Gennaro Cortellessa: So the next time I get a council tax or business rates bill I'll just write back “give me some time”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Raymond Rose: The council’s heads of departments and management teams are not political appointments, they are independent appointments. However, councillors are politically appointed and ought to act to bang heads together to get things sorted, or we vote them out.

Read More
'Get back to basics' Edinburgh City Council faces mounting pressure from busines...

Frank McKay: Excuse after excuse from the council – but there were no delays with the bollards through our city. Roll on 22 May, when we get rid of the SNP/Labour council.

David Black: If people cannot bring themselves to vote for the opposition parties then do the city a favour and do not vote at all.

Gary Gray: Instead of spending all the money on pedestrianising George Street why not concentrate on services in Edinburgh first. Once the council get the basics right then we can think of these vanity projects.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Anne Amato: Why more time? Everything was working until they started cutbacks on street cleaning and the parks department that kept the city looking clean. If you go a couple of miles out of the city everything is different – verges are cut back and bins are being picked up every week, even all throughout lockdown. If other councils can do it why can’t Edinburgh?

Avril Rodger: Agree 100 per cent. East and West Lothian and Fife all manage bin collections and properly maintaining parks verges and green spaces… even floral displays and hanging baskets for everyone to enjoy. How come they have maintained these services during Covid? Edinburgh Council must explain why they could not. Perhaps it’s because they started running them down years ago. Tourists must be mad to spend a hard-earned holiday in Edinburgh – it’s filthy. They will wise up eventually, a day or two to see the sights is enough and there are many other beautiful places in Scotland to spend a holiday.

Karen Finlay: Where does all the money go? Surely we want visitors to see Edinburgh at its best so our streets and surrounding areas should be a priority. Also the taxpayers deserve to live in a clean city.

Marty Ho: I pay council tax for this? There is now an infestation of vermin on our streets, weeds growing on our pavements, and we have all seen the state of the bins. Come on, if you can’t do better stand aside andand let someone else run it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Scott Biddle: The Greens will have something to say about this – all this littler lying around not being recycled! The council’s too busy messing about with road cones. This is a fundamental basic task for any council, let alone a council that’s meant to be in charge of a Unesco World Heritage Site. They should be ashamed of themselves

Mark Stevens: Edinburgh hasn’t even had a typical hectic summer.

Jenny Lee: Yes the council are responsible for emptying bins but the individuals who put their rubbish into them should think again about adding to the mess when they see how full the bins are.

Patricia Anderson: Why do people leave a mess like that in the first place when the bins are full? Take your rubbish back home or take it to the dump yourselves.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sandra Ronald: Most of the rubbish can be recycled and people need to learn to break up boxes and put them in the right bins. It’s not always the council’s fault.

Carol Ann Scott: I used to live in town. Lot of people would drive up to our communal bins and dump stuff in them and leave it at the side. Too lazy to take to the tip I think. It left little room for the people the bins were for. I’m not making excuses for the council though.

Graham Gray: Get all the roads reopened so the bin wagons can get to all the rubbish.

Tia Stockdale: Really it has been like this off and on for years. How much longer do they need?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Elvis Valentine: I don’t remember a time when the bins have been so consistently overflowing in so many locations.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habitsbrought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.