Edinburgh City Council has been accused of treating bin lorry staff as "scapegoats" in a row about missed bin collections.

Unite met councillors on Wednesday to raise concerns about funding cutbacks.

The talks were held after concerns were raised about overflowing bins and less frequent collection services across the city during the summer festivals.

The union claims the city's environmental services budget has been cut by around £17m in the past six years.

Unite city council convener Peter Lawson said: "That's a massive cut of around 16%. And the real figure could be even higher, as the cost of fuel for council refuse lorries has been going up much quicker than inflation.

"Our members are at the front end of having to deal with those savage cuts. They earn thousands of pounds a year less than the average Scottish wage for doing a physically demanding job that is getting harder and harder with every year."

Mr Lawson accused the council of "threatening members with privatisation".

It is understood the local authority has no plans to privatise its current services, however.

A council spokesman said: "We had a constructive meeting with our Unite colleagues.

"The meeting affirmed that the council will continue to work closely with the workforce to strengthen the waste and cleansing service, and put in place changes which will make a difference to the public.

"Detailed discussions are ongoing and we will set out improvement measures in detail at the council's next transport and environment committee."

Speaking to STV News last week, council leader Andrew Burns admitted the bin collection issues in August "weren't acceptable".

He said: "During August, we clearly had some challenges. We have 500,000 visitors in August - that's the equivalent of the World Cup. We put it on every year.

"The vast bulk of what happens in August goes smoothly and without incident. But sometimes that pressure does give us a challenge."

Mr Burns added: "We have 60% more litter being collected in August, so it goes up by virtually two-thirds. Across a year we have 26 million waste collections. There clearly was an issue towards the end of August and the start of September."