Reclaim Our Lanes: GMB launches campaign for citywide deep clean

GMB Scotland today launches a far-reaching blueprint for bins as Scotland’s biggest city recovers from years of austerity and neglect.

The union’s Reclaim Our Lanes campaign calls for the city-centre’s back streets to be cleared of commercial waste and deep-cleaned to drive forward the regeneration programme.

It is calling for stricter enforcement to ensure businesses, including shops, restaurants and take aways, keep rubbish secure and have it lifted quickly.

Almost a dozen commercial operators now have contracts to lift commercial waste in the city-centre but, the union claims, standards vary widely and there is too little supervision and enforcement.

GMB General Secretary Gary Smith joined workers at the campaign launch in Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Lane today to call for urgency and action to underpin the city’s ongoing clean-up.

He said: “After years of austerity and hard campaigning by GMB, Glasgow is starting to get the care and attention that has been lacking for far too long.

“That progress must be secured and protected with no streets left behind.

“Anyone stepping a few yards off some of the city’s most famous streets finds lanes covered in overturned bins, burst bags, fly-tipping and vermin.

“There is no point renovating main streets if the lanes immediately behind them are over-spilling with commercial waste.”

The union is calling on Glasgow City Council to urgently recruit enforcement officers to monitor commercial waste and explain to businesses the benefits of local authority cleansing services.

Its action plan, to be presented to councillors and officials, calls for regular uplifts, cleaning and maintenance of the city’s new bin hubs coupled with strict enforcement to halt fly-tipping and dumping of commercial rubbish nearby. 

Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services, said: “The benefits are potentially huge for the council, for the city and for taxpayers.

“The city is cleaner, the council makes money by taking back commercial contracts, and taxpayers no longer subsidise businesses and their private waste operators failing to meet required standards.”

GMB’s blueprint for action calls for regular uplifts, cleaning and maintenance of the hubs to encourage households to use them coupled with strict enforcement of fly-tipping and dumping of commercial rubbish around the hubs.

John Slaven, GMB organiser at Glasgow City Council, said ensuring the success of the new hubs, a sea change in how Glaswegians take their bins out, will demand rigorous monitoring, maintenance and enforcement to curb fly-tipping.

He said: “While people are still getting used to the changes, the priority must be to instil confidence that bins are lifted regularly and hubs are cleaned and well maintained.

“There is already evidence that shops and takeaways are dumping rubbish in residential hubs and that, if unchecked, will sabotage an initiative that promises positive change in the city.

“We need a new team of enforcement officers working hand in glove with the council’s commercial arm to ensure businesses are getting rid of their waste properly.

“If they are not, the must be encouraged to contract with the council to ensure they do.”