Piershill resident gets a taste of council high-handedness after communal bin hub arrives on her doorstep – John McLellan

Over the years, Piershill has become a battleground of wills between residents and the council, particularly a wrangle over how bins in the large back green areas should be serviced.
Communal recycling bin hubs have been controversial in some areas, but welcomed in othersCommunal recycling bin hubs have been controversial in some areas, but welcomed in others
Communal recycling bin hubs have been controversial in some areas, but welcomed in others

Meanwhile round the front, a new dispute has broken out over the new communal bin hubs which are successful in some locations but hugely controversial in others, and is becoming a microcosm of the council’s communication difficulties and stubborn resistance to adverse local reaction.

Community consultation amounted to A4 sheets fixed to lampposts announcing the arrival of “street infrastructure”, and funnily enough officers say they didn’t get much response.

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The first one resident knew about the plans was when workers arrived to install the new communal recycling hub right outside the main entrance to her ground-floor flat. No letter to her asking if it was OK for the square to dump their detritus outside her front door.

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The pavement is narrow, so every time she goes in and out she has to pick her way past overflowing bins and piles of local jetsam, but the response to immediate and repeated complaints is that the location is within the regulations and if it wasn’t in front of her door, it would be in front of someone else’s.

Despite a long-term health condition, she is effectively being told she just has to live with it because the council computer says no. That doesn’t represent a council which consults properly or cares for the impact of its decisions on its residents, but it does suggest a high-handed attitude to someone with legitimate concerns.

I hope to be proved wrong.

John McLellan is a Conservative councillor for Craigentinny/Duddingston

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