Edinburgh Festival litter pickers clean up bin strike waste

Edinburgh Festival litter pickers hired to collect discarded flyers say they have been left to clear a "nightmare" of rubbish from the city's bin strike.

They have been putting the waste in their own bin that is emptied daily.

A team of four from Kerr Events Cleaning are covering the Old Town during the Fringe - where thousands of leaflets are handed out on city streets

Edinburgh City Council's waste workers began a 12-day strike on Thursday in a dispute over pay.

The action by GMB and Unite union members comes in the final weeks of the Edinburgh Festivals.

One of the leaflet litter pickers, Jill, told BBC Scotland the discarded rubbish in the area was "disgusting".

She said: "It's a nightmare, we are going to get rats. We wouldn't walk by this and just pick up flyers, so we are cleaning the waste up as well.

"I don't know why they aren't getting more companies in to clean this up.

"I'm annoyed about this because they picked the wrong time to go on strike when they knew the festival was on."

Edinburgh is the first of a series of planned strikes across Scotland after unions have rejected a pay offer equivalent to a 3.5% increase.

Hundreds of waste workers will strike until 30 August - the day after the end of the city's International and Fringe festivals.

Council chiefs said they were anticipating that all bin collections and street cleaning would be affected.

The Edinburgh strike will be followed by a second wave of action by waste workers across Scotland. It is a coordinated effort by Unite, Unison and the GMB unions to get an improved council pay deal.

Unite - 24 to 31 August Aberdeen, Angus, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Highland, Inverclyde, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian.

Unison - August 26 to 29 and September 7 to 10 Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and South Lanarkshire

GMB - August 26 to 29 and September 7 to 10 Aberdeen, Angus, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Highland, Midlothian, Orkney, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Perth and Kinross, and North Lanarkshire.

Another leaflet litter picker, Stephen, said: "The bins are full, so now rubbish is being left beside the bins in plastic bags and the gulls are pecking them open.

"With the gusts of wind the rubbish is blowing up into people's faces.

"There should be environmental health officers here because we are only meant to be here to clean up the leaflets from the Fringe."

A third litter picker, Chris, said: "If they don't get these bins emptied soon then it's going to get even worse. It is already worse than we thought it would be when we heard there was a strike on."

Another group of litter pickers from Essential Edinburgh, which represents city centre businesses, is also assisting to clear street waste during the strikes.

A spokesperson said: "We are committed to ensuring our city centre area is as clean and attractive as possible, our dedicated Clean Team service are prioritising cleaning around the public litter bins and removing any over-spill.

"The Clean Team are an added value service for our levy-paying businesses and do not replicate any statutory service provided by the Council.

"We are looking at solutions to proactively manage public litter bins during the strike to ensure our operational area remains an attractive environment."

The GMB and Unite unions have warned that the strikes would bring huge disruption.

Scotland organiser Kirsten Muat said: "If political leaders want to avoid the prospect of more strikes across more councils in the weeks to come, then they must urgently make a significantly improved pay offer."

Eddie Cassidy, from Unite Scotland, said: "My members have been scrimping and scraping over the past ten years, and the time has come to say enough is enough."