Independent monitoring data released by the council this week shows that the Leith Ward has failed to meet minimum “acceptable” standards for litter in every survey undertaken during 2012.

In December 2012, Leith Ward scored 61 for litter, according to the latest Keep Scotland Beautiful litter survey. The national litter watchdog defines the minimum acceptable score as 67.

Leith Ward also managed to achieve a score of 61 in the last quarterly survey, and it was only a city-wide decline in litter scores – led by a huge standards drop in the city centre allegedly caused by the weather, that meant Leith Ward was not once again at the bottom of the city-wide litter league table in December.

As the chart above shows (if you can’t see it on your device, click here), Leith Walk Ward came in above the city-wide average score having improved markedly.

The council report explains this improvement by pointing out that extra workers have been bought in to tackle litter in the area. However, given the continued failing in Leith Ward – regardless of the weather – it would seem that yet more resources may need to be committed to the area yet. 

The Cleanliness of the City report, where these figures were obtained, will be considered by councillors at the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee next week.

You can report litter to the council online using the website fixmystreet.com.

If you use this service your report will also automatically show up on our Fix My Leith page too, so that other folk can see what has already been reported.

Judging by the current reports on the map, it would seem that Leith Ward is currently beset by a multitude of problems, including badly managed trade waste bins, as well as commercial and domestic fly-tipping.

If you would like to play your part in cleaning up Leith, please keep an eye out on this blog for more Greener Leith clean-up events. We’ll be announcing more dates soon.