Fury as bin trial to cost £175,000

FRESH anger over a trial of giant wheelie bins in Edinburgh’s most historic streets erupted today after it emerged the controversial exercise will cost taxpayers £175,000.

City leaders have been condemned for spending the "staggering" amount on the 16-week venture in the World Heritage Site, which will start later this month in the face of massive opposition from community leaders and heritage chiefs.

Lengthy consultation with residents, the staging of public exhibitions and a series of surveys have all been blamed for the figure.

Critics have branded the initiative - which will affect large swathes of both the Old Town and the New Town - a waste of both time and resources, claiming the cash would have been better spent on providing tougher black bin bags and more frequent collections. But the council said it had spent four times longer paving the way for the trial - which attracted more than 100 objections - than it had done in other parts of the city.

Tory New Town councillor David Guest said: "It’s staggering that such an amount is being spent on this exercise, which so few people in the World Heritage Site are in favour of.

"People largely suspect the council is going to go ahead and bring the bins in permanently anyway, no matter the results of their surveys." Gordon Coutts, secretary of the Heriot Row Association, added: "People are dead against this trial but from day one the council just appears to have been determined to railroad the objections aside.

"Everyone will be horrified to hear the cost of this and it does seem a huge waste of money. They’d have been better off giving people reinforced black bags and stepping up the frequency of bag collections than doing this."

Among the areas set for the bins in the World Heritage Site are the Canongate, St Mary’s Street, Forth Street, Hart Street, Regent Terrace, Heriot Row, Fettes Row and Howe Street.

The bins will be introduced over the space of five days from April 26 and will remain in place until August 13.

The council was forced to suspend plans for the trial last August after it was threatened with legal action by a number of lawyers who live in the New Town because officials had not sought planning permission for the move.

The Scottish Executive eventually had to rule on the plans because the council could not have the final say on one of its own applications, with ministers giving the trial their seal of approval last month.

The council won the support of the Executive after pledging to conduct independent environmental impact studies both during and after the trial.

Queen Margaret University College and Keep Scotland Beautiful have been commissioned to conduct research projects, while the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust will carry out its own photographic survey throughout the trials.

The city’s director of environment services, Mike Drewry, said the total costs of the trial covered staffing, venue hire and material for exhibitions, vehicle hire and the conducting of the surveys.

He added: "There has been prolonged and intensive preparation for the World Heritage Site containerisation trials.

"As well as unusually in-depth scrutiny of each individual site, there have been full and wide-ranging discussions, which still continue, with a range of community organisations, other council departments and outside agencies."