Edinburgh Council's bin lorry software to be reviewed after complaints

The city council will review its new Routesmart software for bin lorries after thousands of complaints were tallied up following the roll-out of a new collection system.

Council bin collections.

Officers will draw up a report on lessons learned and any actions to allow the technology to be used more effectively after Conservatives called for the review.

The authority also came under fire for its complaint system. The council only records the number of people who have bothered to complain about missed collections – and doesn’t know how many bins have not been picked up.

Conservative Cllr Graeme Bruce criticised the council’s “flawed” complaints system and said the number of missed bins could be “two to three times greater than stated”.

He added: “If you’re going to report a missed bin collection, you have to register on the mygov.scot website or they phone up and can’t get through to anybody at the council.”

Gareth Barwell, the council’s head of place management, said the bin complaints “shouldn’t integrate into the mygov.scot account”.

He added: “We do need to change our online transactions. I think it’s a matter of principle of mine to make it as easy as  possible for our citizens to tell us if we have let them down.”

Transport and environment convener, Cllr Lesley Macinnes, added: “We are about to enter the Christmas period and we are going to see some stresses on the system again as happens every year in every city.

“What I expect to see once we are past that period is period where we see the request levels come down dramatically to the pre-transition period.”