| A dispute with workers over public holiday entitlement meant there was no collection of household or commercial waste across the city yesterday. Recycling centres were also shut.
It will now be Monday, April 13, before the affected homes and businesses will have their rubbish collected, leaving waste piling up in wheelie bins in the meantime.
Some residents will undoubtedly run out of space in their bins and may have resort to putting refuse into bags.
Liberal Democrat Fraser Macpherson, one of the councillors for the West End ward, said this was unsatisfactory and suggested the collection should have gone ahead today instead.
But a spokesman for the council said, “Collecting yesterday’s bins today would have created a knock-on effect for the rest of the city and the rest of the week.
“We would ask householders whose waste was not collected to take their bins back in and put them out next Monday.”
He added the details of yesterday’s service closures, which also affected parts of the finance, social work and leisure departments, had been publicised on the council’s website and the lack of rubbish collections had been advertised over the weekend on local radio.
However, one upset resident said, “This isn’t very good for us. We are a family of six and the bins will be overflowing by next Monday, especially since it’s the school holidays.
“They didn’t even send us any notification. The council are usually good and let us know what’s happening over bigger holidays.
“This is the first time they haven’t informed us.”
Another said, “Two weeks without having our bins emptied is a total inconvenience. Does it mean we’re due a Council Tax reduction?”
Mr Macpherson said that while he appreciated the council was in dispute with workers, he believed it was unfair for people to have to wait so long for their bins to be emptied.
He said, “A build up of black bags on the street could attract seagulls and rats who bring hygiene risks to communities.”
The dispute with council employees belonging to the Unite trade union is over changes to the number of public holidays and the loss of overtime pay for working on Monday.
Unite regional organser Colin Coupar explained a ballot would be held to see what steps the workers wanted to take next.
The council said discussions with the union would continue. |
