Scots could go seven weeks without recycling bin collections this Christmas amid fears of rubbish piling up

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Scots could be forced to empty their own recycling bins this Christmas under plans which will see no collections for seven weeks.

There are fears households could be "drowning in litter" over the festive season if they are unable to drive to their local tip.

The GMB union has blamed a lack of staff and repeated budget cut backs for the situation at the SNP-run Glasgow City Council.

Households with grey bins - for plastics, metals, cartons, and food tins - due to be collected on Christmas Day will not see a crew until January 22.

Residents due a kerbside collection on January 1 will not be visited until January 29, with collections for thousands of brown bins for food and garden waste facing similar delays.

The GMB claimed a meeting on the festive refuse collection rota saw council bosses suggest that families living in houses with a car could take their own rubbish to the dump if necessary.

But the local authority insisted it was implementing a new rota which would focus on the two-thirds of households in the city living in tenements or apartment blocks.

Chris Mitchell, a GMB cleansing convenor, said: "The clear suggestion was that most people in houses own a car and could empty their bins and drive to the depot.

"It had clearly been discussed as an option by officials and councillors and what are people meant to do if their bin is not emptied for seven weeks?

"The rubbish will not evaporate but there will be more bins overflowing, there will be more fly-tipping, and there will be more rats.

"Anyone living and working in the city knows that is the very last thing we need. This has not come out of nowhere, collections have been cut repeatedly so houses are now only getting collections every three weeks.

"When you add in the holidays to a rota that’s already stretched, this is where you end up. It’s not a Christmas problem, it’s an all-year round problem. Frontline services need properly funded.

"Cutting services in one place, only leads to more problems in another."

George Redmond, leader of the Labour group on Glasgow City Council, said: "It beggars belief that the SNP Council wants to leave bins unemptied for almost two months, forcing families to spend their Christmas holidays either at the dump or drowning in litter.

"This farce is the result of years of cuts to overstretched cleansing crews.

"Glasgow is a brilliant city but it is being let down by SNP mismanagement and neglect - we need a change in direction and a real plan to get Glasgow back to its best."

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "We know the impact of Christmas and New Year public holidays on bin collections services can cause disruption for affected residents.

"In recent years this impact has been particularly felt by those living in flats and tenements as waste can build up quickly in communal areas and cause environmental issues.

"To try and minimise the impact of the loss of service on public holidays, we are taking a different approach this year by focusing additional effort on back courts, bin rooms and public sites.

"To support this approach we are asking residents who are scheduled to receive a kerbside collection on any of the public holidays to wait until their next scheduled dates before putting their bins on the pavement for collection.

"We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but affected residents can be assured any excess or build-up of waste will be removed on their next collection day.

"We hope these residents will make full use of their recycling bins and compact their waste as far as possible to make the most of their available bin capacity.

"Opening of our public waste centres will be also extended to include Boxing Day and January 2 to help residents manage any build-up of waste over the holiday period."

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