Dear Spurtle,

I have made a number of complaints to the city Council about the abysmal standards of street cleaning that are being achieved in the Broughton and Bellevue district [Issues 351, 357]. 

Whenever the Council has failed to respond appropriately, I have found it necessary to make formal Stage Two Complaints within the meaning of the City Council's Complaints Procedure. 

The Council is obliged to respond to Stage Two Complaints within 20 working days – a deadline which it has failed to meet more than once, which is proof that complaints are not being treated with the seriousness that they deserve by officers who are paid to provide services and attend to complaints. 

I am of the view that the city Council's street cleaning service is not fit for purpose and that it is failing to achieve the Scottish Government's requirements of economy, efficiency and effectiveness in street cleaning and waste management. 

Accordingly, I have decided to ask the Accounts Commission to investigate the lack of effectiveness, efficiency and economy of the street-cleaning and waste-management services in Edinburgh. 

The Accounts Commission is a statutory body charged with ensuring that local authorities achieve value for money. It should not be necessary to go to these lengths to obtain the services for which we all pay. We elect city councillors to represent our interests to the Council and to hold managers to account for underperformance and systemic inefficiencies. 

The city councillors who have represented my ward [Leith Walk] over the last eight years have achieved nothing of practical significance to improve these failing services.  One of them has never, once, answered an email from me. 

City councillors all over Edinburgh seem oblivious to Edinburgh being the dirty man of Scotland. 

Shane Carter

[Ed.: Readers can learn more about the work of the Accounts Commission by clicking on this link: https://audit.scot/accounts-commission.]

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