Edinburgh council targets litter, dog fouling, fly-tipping and graffiti in ward-by-ward 'Pride in our City' campaign
The "Pride in our City" campaign involves dedicated council teams working to clean up the city, ward by ward. And 15 extra staff have been taken on to give more power to the project.
Transport and environment convener Stephen Jenkinson said the new drive had got under way in April in Leith Walk ward, where they collected 39 tonnes of litter and dumped items, as well as dealing with graffiti, weeds and chewing gum.


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Hide AdAnd after that they moved on to Leith ward and collected another 23 tonnes of waste.
Cllr Jenkinson said: “The idea is that we will be having a real focus on individual council wards and the project will roll out over a period of time from council ward to council ward.
“Teams, who will be focused in on a ward, will be looking to tackle issues like dog fouling, fly tipping, focusing on weeds, graffiti and general littering.
“The project and the way it's being rolled out has been well received by residents. And there is a little bit of competition between councillors about which ward is next.”
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Hide AdIt comes as the latest figures for street cleanliness - assessed by Keep Scotland Beautiful - gave Edinburgh a score of 89.2 per cent for 2024/25, a slight dip from the previous year’s 90.6 per cent, but an improvement on the 2022/23 score of 86.3 per cent and 82.2 per cent in 2021/22.
Cllr Jenkinson said that Edinburgh ranked third out of eight comparable local authorities in Scotland for street cleansing. The Capital's 89.2 per cent score was below the national average of 91.7 per cent, but above the 87.5 per cent average for the benchmarking group of similar local authorities.
“There has been quite a significant improvement since 2021 ,when we were just over 82 per cent and our scores are almost back to where we were before Covid.
“There is still quite a lot of work to do - it's not a problem that’s going to be solved overnight, but we will continue to invest in this area.”
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Hide AdThe council has doubled the number of specially-equipped graffiti vehicles from two to four. And bringing that work back in house has reduced the tie between graffiti being reported and it being removed.
And it has bought a specialist machine which can remove graffiti from sensitive stone as well as removing chewing gum from pavements thanks to a Chewing Gum Task Force grant.
Cllr Jenkinson said: “We’re doing our part to try and keep our capital city looking at its best for both residents and visitors.
"And we're trying to encourage people not only to put their litter in the bin responsibly but if necessary take it away with them rather than throwing it in the street.
"We're also working with residents to encourage them to recycle them more, but we're highlighting the benefits of the special uplift programme for bulkier items.”
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