Edinburgh property manager demands council collect rubbish left for two weeks

A building manager for a block flats has demanded the council collect rubbish left to pile up for two weeks – or he will be forced to take ‘drastic action’ and dump it onto the street.

Let us know what you think and join the conversation at the bottom of this article.

The building manager for Royal Mile Mansions block wrote to the city council waste team telling them if the bins are not emptied within 24 hours he will start moving rubbish from overflowing bins onto the pavement.

Sanders Aujla notified the council on the 14 May that rubbish for the block of 55 flats hadn’t been collected last week from the bin store on Cockburn Street, located next door to the Pizza Hut.

Fears rubbish in the Cockburn street bin store is a hazard

But after nearly two weeks of no pick-ups and dozens of bags of waste left to pile up Mr Aujla said it has become a hazard and has blasted the council for ‘incompetence’.

READ MORE: What a load of rubbish - Edinburgh New Town is set to lose its gull-proof bin bags

Mr Aujla, who is employed by property managers Charles White, said if the rubbish is not removed he could be forced to move bags of waste from the bins to the street and tell residents to keep waste in their homes.

He said: “The 6 bins are now overflowing and a health and safety hazard to say the least. As you can imagine 55 flats generates a large volume of waste. We normally have two collections a week so we must have been missed at least 4 or 5 times now in a two week period. It’s becoming unhygienic and soon the stench will be going back up the chutes into homes. It’s unacceptable and if it’s not sorted in the next 24 hours I am going to be forced to take drastic action.

"I am extremely frustrated now. I left my office number and still no call back or response. The automated message advised me that it will take 2 working days. Needless to say nothing has been done and no one has taken responsibility.

"According to the council website there are no problems with rubbish collections in EH1. At this point I think it’s incompetence on their part. From my office window I have seen bin lorries collecting commercial waste so there’s no problems with access at the moment.”

READ MORE: Complaints about overflowing bins in Edinburgh soar by 77 per cent

Edinburgh City Council has been contacted for comment.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.