City is voted among cleanest in world.. but at what price?

IT may raise more than a few eyebrows, but believe it or not Edinburgh has been voted one of the ten cleanest cities in the world.

Despite a bin dispute lasting almost two years and costing the city taxpayer millions, the Capital was selected alongside the likes of Calgary and Singapore in a feature by MSN Travel.

The results were welcomed by the city council, although sources admit it was hardly a scientific study and it is unclear what the result was based on. Opponents, meanwhile, said the result had come at a cost of "millions and millions of pounds".

The MSN poll, which also named Dublin, Philadelphia and Truro in Cornwall among its ten tidiest towns, congratulated "gleaming" Edinburgh for its community spirit, noting that 5000 people took part in recent litter collections. Last year Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) gave the city centre its best-ever rating for the cleanliness of its streets.

But Councillor Andrew Burns, leader of the opposition Labour group, said the results had come at a price.

He said: "I welcome the results of this poll, but we shouldn't lose sight of how much this has cost the taxpayer. It has cost millions and millions of pounds to fund private contractors to fill the gap during the work to rule."

Despite complaints about piles of rubbish and marauding seagulls when the bin dispute first began, Edinburgh recently won eight Beautiful Scotland awards for small communities as well as the city-wide award.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, the city's environment leader, said: "It is always good for Edinburgh, as the capital city of Scotland to be recognised in these types of online reviews.

"We want our city to be a great place for people to visit, live and work in. We recently ran a very successful anti-litter initiative on Rose Street and there will be several more taking place across the city."

He added: "The vast majority of Edinburgh residents and visitors deserve a big 'thank-you' for using litter bins, keeping vigilant and letting us know about dog fouling, graffiti and other litter issues. But we must not be complacent, we are determined to continue to take action against the irresponsible minority who continue to litter our beautiful city."

Earlier this year fears were raised that the total cost of the bin dispute could be as much as 10 million.

Officials in the city council's communities department, which includes bin men and street cleaners, admitted that savings earmarked for the present financial year are set to fall 2.3m short "mainly as a result of continuing issues with the refuse dispute".