TRADERS and community leaders in Tollcross have accused the council of not doing enough to tackle the problem of rubbish dumped by weekend revellers.

They say broken bottles, chip wrappers and pizza boxes are left lying in the streets for days and overflowing bins are not being emptied quickly enough.

Council leaders today acknowledged the problem, and promised street cleaning teams would pay "particular attention" to the district from now on.

David Rintoul, who stood down as chairman of Tollcross Community Council last week, said most of the weekend debris was untouched until Monday mornings.

He said: "I don't think the council pay enough attention to this area. We have around 3000 people coming from the Grassmarket and the Cowgate through this area in the early hours of the morning.

"Recently they have paid special attention to the front of [nightclub] Lava and Ignite but there are still broken bottles in the streets after Friday and Saturday nights. That's not all, it's not only the dogs that foul the streets here.

"There should be more done by the environmental wardens in the area after 3am."

He added that an EU delegation had been left unimpressed with the amount of litter in Tollcross. The delegates, from Lithuania, Spain and Dublin, were in Edinburgh for the Urban Net confer-ence on inner city regeneration.

Mr Rintoul said: "When I took a group of EU government ministers and environmentalists around the area they thought it needed a bit of 'spit and polish'.

"They were very interested in the area but I think it would have done better had it been cleaner."

He also said litter bins in the area were not being emptied regularly enough, and called for the road-sweeper to come around earlier on weekdays.

He added: "It's a gateway to the city of Edinburgh and it is very important that it is nicely presented. It's not what the people should see coming into Edinburgh."

Amanda Evans-Nash, who owns Made In France on Lochrin Place, said the streets around her business "never seem to be clean". She added: "Last week I had to phone the council to get them to come and clear out the bins at the junction of Home Street and Lochrin Place because they were overflowing.

"It damages the whole area, there is a seedy image around here with the strip clubs and so on and I think that this makes it look worse. It really does make you wonder what you pay your council tax for in the first place."

Statement Barbers owner Rob Moore added: "You get a lot of fag ends round the doors. They could definitely try a bit harder to make the street look a bit better."

And Tollcross resident Adam Bransbury, 21, said: "I think the area is far below average. They could be doing a lot more to clean up the streets. It just makes the area look very neglected."

The environment leader, Councillor Robert Aldridge, said: "The new Neighbourhood Partnership arrangements will allow local people to set priorities in situations exactly like this. In the meantime I have requested that the Street Cleansing Team responsible for Tollcross pay particular attention to the area at weekends."

Tollcross is covered by one of Edinburgh's six taskforce teams designated to deal with street litter, with discarded fast-food wrappers a council priority.