Residents of Edinburgh’s New Town have launched a £10,000 crowd-funding campaign to pay for potential legal action over council plans to install communal "bin hubs"- your views online

"Ridiculous. How can the council even think of doing this and in a conservation area?”
A mock-up of how the bin hubs could look in the New TownA mock-up of how the bin hubs could look in the New Town
A mock-up of how the bin hubs could look in the New Town

Communal bins

Residents of Edinburgh’s New Town have launched a £10,000 crowd-funding campaign to pay for potential legal action over council plans to install communal "bin hubs" every 100 metres in some of the capital's most historic streets.

Janette Macfarlane

Ridiculous. How can the council even think of doing this and in a conservation area?

Catriona Major

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Our street has one of these bin hubs and the mess is a disgrace – people mistake it for a dumping ground and as the bins are often not emptied and it’s a windy wet street soon the whole street is covered in ‘recyclying’. The council is not entirely to blame here – people need to take responsibility – but if they do move to this model then they need to ensure people living right next to bins are blighted by selfish “dumpers” and inept council collections.

Lorraine Blyth

Good luck with the crowdfunding as most with communal bins would be delighted with either more bins or more frequently emptied bins. So if they are getting bins every 100 meters then they are privileged indeed. Oh to have the luxury of not searching out bins that are not overflowing.

Raymond Rose

Withdraw the communal bins entirely to appease their local aesthetic sensibilities and have them take their own rubbish to the Seafield dump.

David Black

In this day and age the council should dig out underground areas with just an aluminium chute showing above the surface which you just put your rubbish down.

Tully Tulley

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Arrogant snobs. If these bins are good enough for us they are good enough for them.

Andrew Naismith

Don’t install them and make the residents walk or drive to drop off their rubbish at the nearest one. Communal bins in cities make life a lot easier for everyone. Rather than having a bin lorry crawling along the street blocking it as it stops at every single house they stop at a few and it's done in quarter of the time.

Jan Allan

The only problem with that is there are hardly enough bins elsewhere, and they are not emptied frequently enough. I have seen people drive to communal bins which are already full, and dump their rubbish on the pavement beside the bins. When challenged, their answer is usually along the lines of they have no choice because they don't have bins where they stay! They don't care about encouraging seagulls, foxes and rats as long as its not on their doorstep.

Jimmy McAulay Jnr

Not so long ago the people from these areas were complaining about the litter-strewn streets and burst bin bags everywhere.

Burns Stephen

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Why would they not want more bins? Edinburgh full of rats as it is.

Andrew J Swanson

Nobody else got a say when the council originally stuck the horrendous looking big black communal bins outside tenements across the city and gave people the multiple plastic wheely bins. If they can afford to stay in the New Town then it’s a cheek to ask for crowdfunding.

Gavin Jarvie

Councils have to consider the health and safety of their workforce as much as trying to do more with less. Communal bins can be collected far more efficiently so if that helps keep council tax down surely that’s a positive consideration and argument. If the street wants to continue using full sacks then let them. If it costs the council much more in that area to meet the residents’ expectations then offer that service with an appropriate council tax increase for properties in their streets.

Colin Gilbert

Day after day it’s a case of “council bad” with name-calling etc. But it's in the New Town this time so it’s “residents bad”. This is just inverted snobbery and it's pathetic.

Harassment law

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A West Lothian man has become one of the first to be charged with an offence under a new law designed to protect retail workers from harassment at work

Johnny Beskow

Treat people they way you’d want to be treated yourself. And if you abuse them, well hell mend you. You get what you deserve.

Liz Crosbie

Excellent law, no one deserves to be abused. This must be a big relief to hospital staff. It is a very sad reflection of the times when hospitals have police stations in them.

Elayne Young

Manners cost nothing, treat hospitality, retail, bar staff etc the way you would expect to be treated. They work long hard hours for not much money and deserve to be treated fairly. By all means say if you are not happy with service etc, but having a go at staff isn't on.

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.