A city suffering a strike by binmen is returning to its best ahead of a major arts festival, officials claimed.
Edinburgh City Council said it had put contingency plans in place for refuse collection, street cleaning and litter picking to ensure the city is clean and safe for the festival season this month.
Rubbish has been piling up in the streets in parts of Edinburgh where refuse collectors have been working-to-rule for several weeks in protest at plans to change the way they are paid.
A new system being proposed might see the refuse workers' wages change from £18,000 to around £12,000.
Some collections of household rubbish are running four weeks behind schedule, council bosses said in a report earlier this week.
A private contractor has now been employed to do the overtime council employees would normally do, working through the night.
Council Leader Jenny Dawe said: "It is of the utmost importance that the city is as safe and clean as possible, and well prepared for festival season.
"Through the range of measures we have put in place a visible difference in the cleanliness of the city will be obvious almost immediately."
However she said that there have been a number of incidences involving bins being vandalised and council property damaged and called on people to keep calm until the dispute is resolved.
Festivals Edinburgh Director Faith Liddell said they appreciated the steps taken by the council.
She said: "With council employees working normal daytime shifts, and a private contractor in place through the night, the council is now providing a 24/7 operation throughout the Festival period for street cleaning and litter bin emptying.
"Effectively, a larger cleaning programme than ever before is now in place for the Festivals.
"With these measures in place, and healthy advance sales across all of the summer Festivals, we are confident that everyone will have the enjoyable experience that only Edinburgh and its Festivals can deliver, year after year."
