Aberdeen residents who persistently put their rubbish out overnight, or even days before it is due to be collected, could soon face court action.
A pilot scheme, under which interim interdicts will be taken out against offenders, is being suggested to councillors in a bid to clean up the city's image, tarnished when it was named Britain's dirtiest.
Mr Howard Kershaw, of Aberdeen City Council's environmental and consumer protection department, said that, in some streets, residents were putting out plastic bags of rubbish on a Saturday for collection on a Monday.
''They cause a hazard to pedestrians, they cause a refuse problem, and they make the whole city a mess,'' he said.
Many of the bags were burst open, sometimes within minutes, by seagulls but Mr Kershaw said that, until rubbish was put in wheelie bins or residents' own buckets, that would continue.
Last month, the environmental and consumer protection committee asked for proposals for a pilot project, including the use of all legal remedies, for stopping householders from putting out their rubbish earlier than a set time before collection.
''The aim of the interdict would be to prevent the offending individuals from putting out their rubbish for collection earlier than a stated time on the basis that by putting out rubbish too early, say the night before, they were actually contributing to or causing a nuisance because the plastic bag containing the rubbish was not impervious to the attacks of cats, dogs, or birds,'' said the report.
It suggested a pilot study in a carefully selected area where the contracting services department could provide details of the approximate time the rubbish would be collected and residents could be made fully aware of the project and their obligations.
Mr Kershaw said they appreciated that people went to work in the morning and for that reason it was likely that rubbish would not be permitted to be put out before 7.30am for collection during the morning.
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