Edinburgh's communal bin hubs: 'We're not poor cousins of World Heritage SIte - treat us with same respect and pause this roll-out'

More bin hubs are to be rolled out in the Capital despite a plea to put them on hold like the ones scheduled for the New Town.

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Residents in the World Heritage Site won a pause earlier this year on the plans for corrals of six varied kinds bins at regular intervals along streets in the New Town after complaining they would be a scar on one of the most historic parts of the city.

The next stage of the roll-out involves Broughton, Inverleith, Comely Bank, Orchard Brae, Ravelston Dykes, Wester Coates, Dalry, Merchiston, Churchhill and The Grange.

But Inverleith Tory councillor Max Mitchell told the council's transport and environment committee the bin hubs should also be halted in these areas until a trial of alternative ideas in the New Town was concluded.

He said: "What’s good for the goose is good for the gander – those of us in tenements not in the World Heritage Site are not poor cousins of the World Heritage Site and we should be treated with the same respect, as indeed should all residents.

"The trial should be completed in World Heritage Site and then we should have a full and proper consultation process. This is such an important service it is better that we get it right.”

He noted that bin hubs would be cheaper to run than the current bin arrangements but argued it would have a negative effect on residents. "In Comely Bank, where I live, we're going to lose up to 100 parking spaces, we're going to have noisy collections multiple times throughout the week for all the different kinds of bins and these hubs are going to be the source of fly tipping. We can see examples of that in Leith Walk with their bin hubs."

Opponents say communal bin hubs mean loss of parking spaces, extra noise and more fly-tipping.

SNP Craigentinny/Duddingston councillor Danny Aston raised the concerns of residents in Abbeyhill who had contacted him about the bin hubs. "They live in a ground-floor flat, they have a bin hub outside their door and they're very worried there are going to be glass drops at unsociable hours through the night."

An official told the committee there were clearly defined criteria about where hubs were placed and it was inevitable some bins would be outside peoples houses. But she added the bin hubs team did listen to residents and tried to find alternatives where possible.

Committee convener Scott Arthur said officials had shown him how changes could be made within the bin hubs to ensure glass bins were not right next to people's windows.

He said: "Glass bins are a big issue, but going forward we've got the deposit return scheme and that should both reduce the volume of bottles going into these containers and also reduce the need to empty the containers."

The committee voted to proceed with the roll-out except for 10 individual locations where officials will look for alternative sites. A Lib Dem attempt to add to the list another nine locations where they said there were specific concerns was rejected.