I feel sick about the threat of a garbage strike at the Edinburgh Festival

Businesses in Edinburgh have said the city cannot cope with another summer of refuse collection strikes like the one two years ago, which left rubbish piling up on the streets.

“It’s embarrassing for tourists to come to Scotland’s most famous street where it stinks and no one wants to sit next to rubbish while eating,” said the 39-year-old.

“They have to end the strike. They have to think about the city, especially the Royal Mile, one of the biggest tourist streets in the world. Edinburgh Castle is there. It’s horrific.”

Ms Scott said that two years ago, when workers staged a 12-day strike during the festival, the city’s historic old town looked like the old days when people threw chunks of glass out of windows and shouted “Gardyloo”.

“We certainly don’t want that to happen again,” she said.

Earlier this week, Edinburgh’s waste and recycling department workers called for a strike during the festival over a wage dispute.

The two unions said the current salary offer from local government agency Cosla was well below what they deserve.

Cosla defended its wage offer and called on the unions to reconsider their decision to take industrial action.

William Burdett-Coutts, who runs one of the Edinburgh Fringe’s biggest venues, called for the strike to be ended “at all costs”.

Mr Burdett-Coutts, who has run the Assembly’s venues for 45 years, told BBC Scotland News he believed the festival was once again being used as a pawn in the dispute between unions and councils.

“When I heard that, I thought, ‘Oh no, not again,’ and I was sad because we put so much work into the festival performance,” he said.

“August is Edinburgh’s biggest show of the year and it’s embarrassing to have huge amounts of rubbish lying around everywhere. It’s not exactly good for the city’s image,” he said.

Galab Singh Gold, who owns 12 Scottish souvenir shops on the Royal Mile, said his business was heavily dependent on international visitors.

“That was a total disaster two years ago and very damaging to the city’s image,” he said.

“Many tourists have asked us: ‘Does the city always look like this? It is such a beautiful city, why is there such chaos here?’

“There were mountains of garbage and a lot of stench because of the weather at the time.”

“It was very unsightly and people couldn’t understand how a World Heritage site could be in such a bad condition.”

Mr Singh Gold said his clients were shocked and disappointed because they expected to find the beautiful Edinburgh depicted in the pictures on the internet.

“It has had a very negative impact,” he said.

“We had to jump over the garbage during our deliveries and the smell was horrible.”

“If it happens again, it will be another nail in the coffin for Edinburgh’s image and reputation.”

Tom Ponton, owner of the Oz Bar in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, said he was heartbroken to hear of plans for another strike.

“The last strike during the festival was a disgrace,” he said.

“We waded through overflowing garbage cans from which everything came out, including food.

“Rats were swarming everywhere and stray cats were jumping around on it.”

Mr Ponton said it was unbelievable that workers would go on strike again at a worst possible time for the city.

“It is the capital and the biggest arts festival in the world and we have to deal with it,” he said.

Brian Robertson, secretary of Unite’s Edinburgh branch, said members did not want to “mess up the festival” and called on the Scottish Government to come to the negotiating table and find a solution to prevent a repeat.

“It’s about local government salaries across Scotland,” he said.

“These brave workers will go on strike and face pay cuts unless the Scottish Government comes to the negotiating table and we can negotiate with them and with Cosla to get a fair pay rise for all local government workers in Scotland.”

“The vast majority of local authority employees earn far less than the average wage in this city – many of them work for less than £20,000 a year.”

A Cosla spokesman said the company had submitted an attractive offer that was at the limit of what the municipalities could afford.

“We are disappointed with our unions’ consideration of industrial action and concerned that it appears to be targeting waste disposal, again posing potential health risks to the public,” they said.