Edinburgh family complains of being wakened by bin lorries in the middle of the night

A family say they are being wakened every second night – by refuse lorries emptying the communal bin outside their flat at anytime between 10pm and 3am.

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

The family, who live in Albert Street, Leith, said they had complained to the council about the night-time collections but their protests were ignored.

They even phoned the police but were told there was nothing they could do.

The father said: "The lorry comes to collect the bins every two or three days. It's a constant case of broken sleep.

"My partner works as a student nurse so she's out the door at 6am.

"And we have a 17-month-old daughter who just gets woken up constantly.

Edinburgh's New Town bins row: Heritage body says council plans would cause 'significant harm' to World Heritage Site

The family photographed the bin lorry outside his house doing its night-time collections.

"They also moved the bins to right outside my bedroom window and my daughter's bedroom is right next to ours, street-facing, so it's not ideal."

He said the night-time collections started about 18 months ago.

"They stopped doing it for a while but then they started it again and it's still going on.

"We phoned up and complained – but they just ignored everything I said."

The family photographed the bin lorry outside his house doing its night-time collections.

He said one official had insisted collections all stopped at 10pm.

"I told him that was rubbish because I've got a video and photos with time and date stamps of them doing it after 10pm."

The city council said it did operate a night shift for bin collections which ran from 7pm, though they tried to complete collections in residential areas as early as possible.

And it said Albert Street was currently included in this due to access issues with the work on the tram extension on Leith Walk.

It said the collections in Albert Street had switched between day shift and night shift since 2020. They most recently operated on day shift from December to late February but were then added to the night shift route due to the access issues.

The council said shift patterns were revised as access allowed so when the tramworks changed in a way which made access easier Albert Street would go back to day shifts.

.A council spokesperson said: “During the tram project, night shift collections have been necessary due to access issues during the day. We appreciate recent concerns in Albert Street and are looking to revise the route so that collections are made earlier in the shift.”

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.