Below are details of the Council’s plans to review the assisted uplift service in Edinburgh. They plan to write to some of the most vulnerable people in Edinburgh to ask if they still need the service. I am really concerned about this, and have asked if the process has been approved by the Transport & Environment Committee.

This does not feel like the best time to be worrying some of Edinburgh’s most vulnerable people about potentially removing this valuable service. Indeed, I hope equal effort is invested in raising awareness of the service so more people can make use of it.  

Briefing
I am contacting you to inform you that the Waste and Cleansing Service is undertaking a review of our residents who are registered as having an assisted collection.

As you may be aware the service is designed to help where members of a household are physically unable to move wheeled bins or boxes to the kerbside for us to collect. Our crews collect, empty and return a residents bin(s) to a storage position at an agreed location within the boundaries of their property. We can arrange for an assisted collection on a temporary basis (6 months), or on a long-term basis depending on their specific circumstances.

There are currently around 7500 existing assisted collections and there has not been a review of these for a number of years. We believe there may some which are no longer required but we have not been informed of the change. Therefore we are checking whether resident still requires the service and gathering information which help us contact them in the future. A DPIA has been completed and all personal information gathered in this exercise will be handled carefully and in accordance with the relevant legislation.

A letter will be sent out to each address that currently receives an assisted collection this week, a copy of the letter is attached. The letter asks if the assisted collection is still required and requests that the resident (or resident’s carer) fills in the form and returns it to us in a prepaid envelope.

We allow 15 working days for a response, for those who do not respond we will send out a reminder letter in November. If we have had no response we will assume they no longer the service and they will be removed but this will not be done until after the New Year.

If you require any further information please let me know.