Pubs are struggling with bins rules
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HIGHLAND Council is under pressure to provide exemptions to a new policy forcing city centre traders to keep their bins on their premises outwith collection times.
The local authority may have to water down rules for some pubs who have no indoor storage space.
Pubs struggling to comply include MacCallums and Gunsmiths on Union Street.
Mike Smith, manager of Inverness Business Improvement District (Bid), said he expects the council will give those kinds of businesses a reprieve.
"It’s always been recognised that those were the areas that there were particular problems and we would expect that exemptions will be given if there are no solutions," he said.
A council spokeswoman said "a relatively small number" of traders were having difficulty complying with three exemption applications received so far.
Brought in to make the city centre more attractive under the new rules trade waste bins can only be put out on the pavement during approved time-slots for collection and traders will be fined if they do not comply.
A member of staff at MacCallums Bar, who asked not to be named, said the rubbish bins were collected on week-day mornings but the cellar "absolutely stinks" when bags have to stay indoors over the weekend. She said the pub’s two wheelie bins storing empty bottles present a larger problem.
"They’re still out on the street," she said. "We can’t do anything about that.
"We can’t take them up and down the stairs because they’re so heavy it’s unbelievable. We think we’re getting an exemption. If they don’t give us one we’re stuck. We won’t be able to trade."
The Gunsmiths Bar is understood to be in the same position.
Robert Yorston, manager of R&B’s at 73 Queensgate, who owned Gunsmiths up to 2016, said: "Gunsmiths cannot put their bins anywhere. They can’t put them under the bar as environmental health won’t allow that. It’s not fair. The bloke at Gunsmiths can’t get any resolution."
