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The West Lothian crew of Rob, Stuart and Declan enjoy a great rapport with the residents on their beats, and often hand out gifts at Christmas to the children they see and wave to during the year.

With some of the crew being Rangers fans, they also enjoy regular football banter whenever they see massive Hibs fan Bill from East Calder.

However, when Bill told the crew that he has no family and was going to be spending Christmas alone, they knew they had to do something to brighten his day.

The bin crew presented Bill with his Hibs top.

So the crew all clubbed together and bought Bill a Hibs football top, and arranged for it to be signed by the Hibs team through club captain David Gray, who lives in West Lothian.

Waste operative Rob Callander said: “Bill’s a great guy and always comes out for a quick chat and some football banter with us when we are emptying his bins.

“When he said he was spending Christmas alone, we wanted to do something special for him. He’s Hibs daft, so we all chipped in to get him the football top”.

“Huge thanks for Hayley and David Gray for arranging to get the top signed by the Hibs team, Bill seemed really delighted to get it and hopefully it’s helped make sure he has the great Christmas he deserves.”

Executive councillor for the environment Tom Conn paid tribute to the efforts of the crew for looking out for their community spirit.

He said: “It’s fantastic to see Rob and his crew go above and beyond to bring some festive cheer to a local resident like Bill this year.

“We have received a lot of positive messages regarding our dedicated waste crews in the last few weeks, who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to ensure collection were not disrupted.

“The thanks they have received from local residents recently shows just how much their efforts have been appreciated during a very challenging year.”

Rangers-supporting binmen give signed Hibs shirt to elderly man alone at Christmas