During its annual comedy festival, the capital of Scotland is experiencing litter-strewn sidewalks and overflowing trash cans. The situation is only expected to become worse as more vermin infestation warnings are issued.
The strike by garbage workers in Edinburgh won’t conclude for another nine days, but the issues are already becoming worse, affecting street cleaning, recycling centers, and bin collections.
At a time when the city is bustling with visitors as a result of the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, wrappers and takeout containers are accumulating on the streets.
In order to dissuade individuals from attempting—and failing—to put additional stuff into dumpsters that are already full, some residents have started closing the entrances.
Additionally, due to the continuing strike action, rats and mice are seeing a “huge growth” throughout the city.
The head of the city’s historic watchdog, Terry Levinthal of the Cockburn Association, expressed concern about the situation becoming “a tremendous public health crisis” on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland show.
Even prior to the strike, he said, there were issues.
We received complaints from our members and stakeholders, especially in the Old Town, where a number of structures for hospitality businesses have been built. If I may put it this way, these structures make excellent hiding places for the city’s mouse and rat population, which eats all of the food left out for them.
And since there is so much food available, we’ll see that there will be a significant increase in the population of vermin in a few weeks as a consequence.
To dissuade potential flytippers, a Tesco store in Corstorphine had to close off portions of its parking lot that included recycling bins. This plant is temporarily closed due to industrial action, according to a notice.
Both CCTV and automatic number plate recognition cameras are in use in this parking lot.
“Anyone who is found flytipping things, including domestic rubbish, will have their information sent to the police.”
People were allegedly putting trash near the trash cans, which are typically emptied by municipal employees.
The recycling facilities at our Corstorphine Extra store are momentarily closed, according to Tesco. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reopen the facilities as soon as local garbage pickups start up again.
On Thursday, employees of the city council who are members of the Unite and GMB unions left their jobs after rejecting a 3.5% salary offer from the umbrella organization for local government, Cosla. The strike is expected to continue until next Tuesday.
In an effort to stop additional industrial action, an enhanced compensation offer that would boost employees’ salary by an average of 5% was put up on Friday. This offer is allegedly being thought over by unions.
The head of Edinburgh’s council, Cammy Day, has warned residents and businesses that there may be disruptions during the strike. He requested a meeting of Cosla and wrote to Deputy First Minister John Swinney to negotiate a fresh wage offer.
None of us want to go on strike, but when the government is not meeting the needs of the workforce and Cosla leaders are struggling to make ends meet across all local authorities in Scotland, we need them to get down and figure out a solution.
In order to prevent any strikes that might affect other local government services, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already urged council leaders to provide council employees a 5% salary increase.
Comedy event will be held, according to a group of artists, in support of the striking employees. On Wednesday, the event, which will be held at the New Town Theatre, will include a number of stand-up comedians from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Jo Caulfield, Jason Byrne, Mark Nelson, Mark Thomas, and Susie McCabe are among the guests slated to present.
“These are the employees that got us through Covid,” Mr. Thomas said. “And now they’re being forced to take a significant pay reduction.” It’s intolerable, and they need our assistance in retaliating.
Picket lines were set up at garbage and recycling facilities around the capital on Thursday, and a demonstration was staged outside the city council chambers following the official start of the action at 5 a.m.
Following the walkout in Edinburgh, trash workers will go on strike again throughout Scotland under the direction of the Unite, Unison, and GMB unions in an effort to get a better municipal pay arrangement.
All trash pick-ups and street sweeping are expected to be impacted, according to council leaders.