Edinburgh rubbish: 359,000 complaints over flytipping, overflowing bins, graffiti, litter and dog fouling

Dumping and flytipping produced the most complaints - a total of 61,985 between April 2019 and September 2024. There were 40,869 complaints about overflowing communal bins in the same period; 35,461 about non-collection of garden waste; 31,434 about overflowing package recycling bins; and 30,097 about non-collection of individual residual waste bins.

The figures were obtained by the Scottish Conservatives, using Freedom of Information legislation. They asked all Scottish council for similar information and only Glasgow had more complaints.

Flytipping led to the biggest number of complaints

Lothian Tory MSP Miles Briggs said: “This is a staggering number of complaints from the public over the state of council-run services.

“Edinburgh Council has received an overwhelming number of complaints which puts it in the unenviable second place of most complaints across the country. The failure to keep our communities clean is not just unsightly but also a serious health hazard.

“This is a direct consequence of the damage done by SNP cuts to Scottish councils over the last 17 years, which has resulted in bin strikes across Edinburgh at peak times in the summer.

“The state of Edinburgh and Scotland’s streets is declining as bins lie uncollected and graffiti and other vandalism simply is not cleaned up.

“The blame cannot be shifted by the SNP onto councils as it is their policy of underfunding that is leading to councils’ budgets being slashed.

“It is high time that Ministers listened to the public and stopped cutting funding to local authorities so our towns and cities can be places to be proud of once more.”

But the Scottish Government said it was giving councils a record settlement and was taking action over cleansing issues, including increased fines for flytipping and a new civil penalty for littering from vehicles.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Councils provide some of the most important services to Scotland’s communities – from waste services to social care – which is why we are providing them with a record settlement of more than £15 billion, with a real terms increase in funding in the coming year.

“We know litter and flytipping are important issues for local people and communities. That is why we have increased the fixed penalty notice for flytipping and will introduce a new civil penalty for littering from vehicles in due course. We are also banning single use vapes from June next year.”

Edinburgh’s transport and environment convener Stephen Jenkinson said: “Keeping the Capital clean and tidy is a top priority for us, and this is a view shared by our residents, business and visitors.

“This commitment is reflected in the allocation of additional funding for our street cleansing team in successive budgets. This financial year we also provided an extra £892,000 in conjunction with existing revenue funding.

“We’ve also seen our city’s standings improve in the Local Environmental Audit and Management System (LEAMS) survey, which measures cleanliness across Scottish local authorities, with an increase of over 8 per cent since 2021/22. This is clear evidence that we’re headed in the right direction although I’m conscious that we still have work left to do.

“We are operating in extremely challenging financial times but I am determined that we’ll continue to provide the best possible levels of service to the people of Edinburgh.”