Dear Edinburgh residents... love from your bin crews
Waste collectors' open letter ahead of planned bin strike; plus Starmer makes Capital his first call
Waste workers appeal directly to residents and businesses as bin strike looms
A UNION leader behind plans for a bin strike during the Festivals is appealing to residents and businesses to help bring politicians to the negotiating table.
GMB organiser Keir Greenaway has written an open letter to city residents and businesses calling on them to lobby their councillors, MPs and MSPs to intervene in the deadlocked pay negotiations, saying low-paid council workers deserve better.
In the letter sent to The Scotsman in response to an outcry over the threat to the Festivals and local businesses, union leaders accuse Scotland’s local authorities of dragging their feet in efforts to reach a deal to avoid a strike in August.
The two sides appear a long way apart, with the unions dismissing the pay offer on the table as “pitiful”, while council negotiators say industrial action raises “potential public health risks”.
Unless a deal is agreed in the next three week, refuse staff are set to walk out in 16 local authority areas across Scotland, including Edinburgh, Midlothian and Fife.
The last bin strike saw rubbish pile up in the Capital’s streets for 12 days in the middle of the Festival until the intervention of then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon led to a deal.
‘Only for the Festivals’: In his open letter, GMB union organiser Keir Greenaway says: “Residents only have to live with this disruption for as long as the strike action lasts. Our members in waste have to work under stretched services doing backbreaking work for low pay all year round. They’re not taking strike action without a sacrifice of their own. Every day our members strike they lose a day’s pay.”
The councils say: Cosla (the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, which is negotiating on behalf of local councils) says the offer is “at the limits of affordability for councils”, following a “flat” cash settlement from the Scottish Government. "We are disappointed that industrial action is being contemplated by our unions and concerned that it appears to be targeted at waste services, once again raising potential public health risks."
What’s the rub? Refuse collectors - whose basic pay is understood to start from around £25,000 - have been offered an 18-month deal which would see pay increase by 2.2% and then a further 2% in October. Union leaders are holding out for more, saying the UK Government has offered a better deal to refuse workers in England and Wales. The unions appear to be using an August bin dispute in an effort to set a benchmark for other lower paid council staff workers, as they point to “many earning less than £20,000 a year”.
The restaurateur: Daniela Scott, who runs Scott’s Italian restaurant on the Royal Mile, told the BBC: “It’s embarrassing for tourists to come to Scotland’s most famous street and it’s stinking. Nobody wants to sit next to rubbish while they eat.”
The Fringe venue: William Burdett-Coutts, who runs the Assembly Fringe venues, called for the strike to be stopped “at all costs”, saying rubbish piling up in the streets was bad for the city’s image.
The city leader: City council leader Cammy Day says: “My priority is delivering good-quality public services for the people of Edinburgh all year round but clearly we want to prevent a repeat of the disruption two years ago. We’ll be developing detailed contingency plans ahead of any potential strike action to minimise disruption to council services should it go ahead. I would strongly urge the Scottish Government and Cosla to work with the unions to find a solution.”
YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING
RAIL DISRUPTION: More than 200 ScotRail services were cancelled yesterday as ongoing industrial action started to bite. Many drivers are not making themselves available for overtime or rest day working as pay dispute talks continue between the rail company and trade unions. Scotrail are advising travelers to check on service updates before travelling, amid disruption on a number of routes in and out of Edinburgh, including to Glasgow, North Berwick, Tweedbank, Glenrothes and Aberdeen.
E-BIKE ROBBERY: A 74-year-old man was robbed of his e-bike after being punched in the back of the head by a man wearing a balaclava at the traffic lights outside the Commonwealth Pool, on Dalkeith Road. Police are appealing for witnesses to the “shocking” attack which took place at around 12.30pm on Wednesday.
MAROON MILE MARCH: Hearts fans and their families are being invited to join a mass march from the Haymarket War Memorial to Tynecastle Park on Saturday, from 12.45pm, as part of the club’s 150th anniversary celebrations. A 150-strong band of pipers and drummers will lead the procession celebrating the inauguration of the route as the ‘Maroon Mile’. There will be live music outside the stadium afterwards, before Hearts’ pre-season friendly against London club Leyton Orient.
ALIEN INVASION: The hotly-anticipated reboot of Ridley Scott’s Alien movies is to get its UK premiere at the revamped Edinburgh International Film Festival. Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus will open the Midnight Madness section of the festival on 15 August. The showing comes 45 years after the Festival hosted a midnight premiere for the original Alien film.
FRINGE CENTRAL: Memorabilia from the 77-year history of the Fringe will go on display, alongside affordable rehearsal and working space for the city’s performing arts community, in its new HQ on South Bridge. The Fringe Society, the charity which oversees the running of the world’s biggest arts festival, is converting a Victorian former school building into its year-round home, thanks to a £7m UK Government grant. It promised its home will be accessible and environmentally sustainable in its design brief.
CULTURE CUTS: Arts organisations across the Capital face continuing financial uncertainty despite the Scottish Government’s pledge last year to “more than double” arts funding. The national arts agency Creative Scotland is due to make decisions on long term grants in October with any real-time increase in its budget yet to be confirmed. Lori Anderson, director of Culture Counts campaign, which represents more than 70 arts organisations, told The Scotsman, “The current available budget stands at around £40m for applications totalling £87.5m, leaving huge uncertainty for cultural organisations awaiting these vital decisions.”
BOOK FESTIVALS APPEAL: The Edinburgh International Book Festival this week joined the eight other UK literary festivals, including those in Hay and Cheltenham, who have lost the sponsorship of Baillie Gifford in appealing for donations. Their appeal stressed the role of book festivals in making “a better world” by providing a cherished platforms for imagination and debate.
NEW PORT QUARTER: Forth Ports have announced details of their plans for a "vibrant new quarter" at the east end of the docks in Leith. The Harbour 31 development, next to the First Stage film studio, will include 337 new homes and space for potential retail, food and drink, training and education facilities, and general industrial use. It is hoped the new residential and commercial site will create a new link between the port and the wider community around Leith.
GENERAL ELECTION FALL-OUT
PM’S ‘RESET’ TOUR: Keir Starmer slipped into Bute House by the back door to avoid pro-Palestine protesters, as he made Edinburgh the first stop on his “reset” tour of the nations of the UK. The Prime Minister, who met First Minister John Swinney yesterday, declared he wants to build more constructive relationships with the UK’s devolved governments. He also said talks were underway to help protect jobs at the Grangemouth oil refinery.
SNP FINANCIAL LOSS: The collapse in their vote has left the SNP with another headache, this time financial. The funding formula for the distribution of cash to Opposition parties, based on seats and votes won, means their funding will plummet by around £900,000 per annum to just less than £350,000. The funds pay for UK Parliamentary staff and activity. Most recent SNP accounts show a deficit of £800,000.
DOWN TO BUSINESS: Douglas Alexander, the new Edinburgh East MP, has been appointed a junior minister in the Department for Business and Trade, working under Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds. Pre-election reports of David Lammy being overlooked for Foreign Secretary, opening the door for Alexander, proved to be wide of the mark.
‘FOOLISH’ TO WRITE OFF INDY: Joanna Cherry, who lost for the party in Edinburgh South West, said the SNP had become “decoupled” from the Independence movement and it would be “foolish… to assume the constitutional question is off the table.” She said she was ruling nothing out and nothing in when it comes to standing for election again.
…OR REFORM: Nigel Farage’s party may not have made an impression nationally in Scotland, but they did vastly out perform Alex Salmond’s Alba Party and came within a few hundred votes of the Conservatives in two Capital seats, Edinburgh West (polling 2,209 compared to the Conservatives 2,897) and Edinburgh East (2,129 compared to 2,598). They are mulling over the opportunity to run in the Holyrood elections in 2026.
POSTAL VOTES: Edinburgh’s returning officer, the council’s new chief executive Paul Lawrence, has said a review of arrangements would be appropriate to ensure the system can cope when an election is called at relatively short notice.
THE BUSINESS
Business Rates to come under renewed scrutiny?
Edinburgh’s business community is likely to keep a weather eye out for the new Labour Government’s promised reform of business rates in England – and more pertinently, how the devolved government in Scotland responds.
Businesses want Holyrood to ensure that they are not disadvantaged by any changes south of the border through Scottish Government inaction. There was widespread dismay last year that significant business rates relief passed to the stressed hospitality sector last year down south was not mirrored in Scotland, and there is growing concern over the divergence of income tax banding.
The Labour Party pledged in its election manifesto to replace the current business rates system with one that would “raise the same revenue but in a fairer way”.
It provided no detail on how that might happen, but stressed that it would better reflect modern trading, including ensuring online companies operating out of warehouses paid more tax.
“No longer fit for purpose…”
Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce is amongst the many business organisations who have repeatedly called for reform. Jo Davidson, policy director said: “Business rates are a no-longer-fit-for-purpose model, based on property, and we need to see this replaced with a fairer tax model that is more transactionally based, to better reflect the way in which most business is done nowadays.
“Work was being done through the Scottish Government’s New Deal for Business Group, and we will certainly be keeping an eye on how that progresses, particularly now we will see some kind of reform in England.”
That is certainly a view with which the Scottish Retail Consortium agrees, having seen members with High Street presences taxed more than online retailers who continue to enjoy bigger market share. And CBI Scotland also wants to see a system “that has not managed to adapt to new ways of working” reformed.
Business (or more accurately Non-Domestic) rates – which net more than £3 billion a year in Scotland – have been a cause of regular appeals for reform in Scotland, as they were in England, as a “legacy” tax based on bricks and mortar which does not reflect modern trading and disincentivises business investment.
Opponents point out that investment in an office, shop or factory – for example improving energy efficiency or expanding – only leads to businesses facing a higher tax bill.
As recently as the end of 2022, the Scottish Parliament’s own Economic and Fair Work Committee said : "The current NDR system acts as a disincentive when trying to attract businesses back to our town centres. For businesses already located in town centres, the current NDR system acts as a disincentive to invest in already occupied property, as any investment leads to an increase in NDR.”
MUCKLE GROWTH: Edinburgh public relations firm Muckle Media has continues its growth strategy by acquiring fellow PR agency Spey for an undisclosed. This follows their purchase of food and drink communications agency Taste Communications two years ago, and Platform PR in 2015.
ON BOARD: Edinburgh-based 1nhaler has appointed two experts in inhalation and respiratory medicines to its Board as Non-Executive Directors as it looks to accelerate the development and market-readiness of its novel single use inhaler device. Jane Gaddum, formerly Vice President for emerging brands within global marketing for AstraZeneca, has joined as Board Chair and also joining the board is Gordon Muirhead, formerly Vice President for new product introduction and technical lead for global supply for GlaxoSmithKline.
CHEERS: Edinburgh’s craft Bellfield Brewery has secured a listing with supermarket giant Asda that sees the gluten-free beer-maker’s Lawless Village IPA, Bohemian Pilsner and Mega City IPA on shelves of 40 stores across Scotland. All of the brewer’s products are certified by Coeliac UK and registered with the Vegan Society.
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
JAZZ AND BLUES: Always one of the highlights of Capital’s festival season, the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival gets underway on Thursday. With more than 120 events across the city over 10 days, there are too many highlights to mention, so we’ll limit ourselves here to the marvelous Mardi Gras in the Grassmarket on Saturday. Don’t miss our special Inquirer preview in the coming days.
DOG DAYS: They’d have been barking mad not to. After the success of last year, P in the Park has come back to Unleashed Midlothian over the coming weekend open 10am-4pm both days! The site at Cousland Park Farm will host demonstrations, play opportunities, and lots of food and drink – and there’s stuff for humans too.
MAZE RUNNERS: The Sprint World Orienteering Championships take place across the city from Thursday until Tuesday, 16 July, with hundreds of elite athletes competing on unusual urban routes. Family-friendly activities, including orienteering mazes and fun races, are being laid on as part of the event.
SONGS ABOUT ROSES: One of the major exhibitions to celebrate the Fruitmarket’s 50th anniversary showcases the large-scale works of acclaimed Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama. Using materials collected from Ghana’s now obsolete railway, Songs About Roses is at the gallery on Market Street from Saturday until 6 October.
QUICK BITES
IN ITS POMP: The Pompadour, at the Caledonian Hotel, has launched a new tasting menu to mark the restaurant’s 120th anniversary. Dean Banks, who runs the restaurant, has designed an eight course tasting menu that will be on offer throughout July.
NEW OPENING: A new fine dining restaurant has been launched at The Scott Hotel, in the southside, part of the University of Edinburgh Hospitality Collection. Bonnar’s is in the 18th century building in the university’s grounds at Holyrood Park Road, and offers both a la carte and tasting menus.