Graffiti removal team on the cards in the capital

THE setting up of a dedicated graffiti removal team in Edinburgh is among the options that members of a committee at The City of Edinburgh Council are being asked to consider, following an additional £3m being approved at the beginning of the year to the city’s refuse and cleansing budget.

The Transport and Environment committee will consider a recommendation to allocate £530,000 on what will be a brand-new service “to focus on removing graffiti from public buildings and infrastructure, with the ability to raise additional income by charging privately owned buildings for the service”.

Says a council announcement, here: “[The] committee will also be asked to agree to £500,000 being allocated for a means-tested special uplift service, making it easier for those households in receipt of Council Tax reduction to use the service at no cost.

“Other measures being considered are increasing the budget for gully cleaning and channel cleaning by more than 50 per cent (an investment of £380,000), funding of £180,000 for a ‘rapid response service’ to improve cleanliness in the city centre, and additional teams to focus on high density areas which have communal bins and suffer from fly tipping at a cost of £290,000.”

The additional £3m is on top of an already agreed refuse and cleansing budget of £14m for 2023-24.

Adds the announcement: “A dedicated team to tackle approach roads into the city and rural roads at a cost of £300,000 for additional staff and equipment is also being considered. This multi-skilled team would be tasked with litter picking, mechanical sweeping, gully emptying, and verge and hedge maintenance.

“The remaining £940,000 would be used for our night shift operations and making sure there is always cover for essential tasks such as litter bin emptying, rapid response teams, city centre and town centre cleansing.”

The committee will hear (here) how a three-times-a-year survey of Edinburgh’s cleanliness – called Local Environmental Audit and Management System, and carried out by the charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful – has found an improvement between August last year and January this year.

Picture credit: Place Design Scotland

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