No light shed on bin collection mystery - John McLellan

I checked the council website for information, which really helpfully explained – “There are currently delays to some bin collections.” No sh** collection, Sherlock.

Bin collection times have been changed for the festive period at councils across Scotland | Contributed

So I got in touch with some old contacts who I thought would know more and was told it was “unexpected staff issues”, the same line as reported in the Evening News. That could be anything from an outbreak of terrible sickness to sudden mass departures, so it didn’t shed much light.

I wondered if officials knew what was going on because the list of areas affected did not include Morningside/Merchiston, but that little grey box outside my house was the food bin which should have been emptied the week before. And according to the council, food bin collections were continuing as normal, which unless I was hallucinating, they very clearly were not.

Glass collections have been suspended till next week, but not before people round here had put the boxes out, as if everyone checks the council website on a nightly basis and can trust what it says anyway. Maybe it’s a data protection thing, but it strikes me that as the council has email details for council tax and garden bin collections, it shouldn’t be beyond its capabilities to contact customers directly when there is a significant service failure. After all, they’re quick to let you know if you don’t pay your council tax.