A Perth restaurant boss is pleading with the council to remove a row of overflowing bins from the back of her family’s premises before they spark a fire.
Nongmay Buncharoen says the commercial bins behind the Mae Ping Thai restaurant in the city centre are already a magnet for vermin.
And she says she has been urging Perth and Kinross Council to act on the problem for the last five years.
“There’s a mess there every single week,” Nongmay said.
“It’s bad enough with the birds pulling all the rubbish out of the bags and leaving it everywhere.
“But what if someone puts out a cigarette and it starts a fire?”
Perth and Kinross Council says it sent a crew to clean the latest mess after The Courier raised Nongmay’s concerns.
It has also pledged to remove some of the bins.
But they had yet to be collected on Monday afternoon.
And Nongmay says she is not confident that the problem will be fixed this time.
‘Rubbish left lying for days’
Mae Ping Thai Dining’s main entrance is on South Street, Perth.
But the rear of the restaurant opens out onto a corner of the Scott Street car park.
And Nongmay says the problems started when a number of commercial bins belonging to other businesses were installed there.
“They’re always overflowing,” she said.
“I haven’t seen rats yet but there are birds there all the time.
“I regularly come in in the morning to find they’ve left rubbish all over the ground,” she added.
“Sometimes it lies there for three or four days, or until I phone the council and ask them to come and deal with it.”
Council urges businesses to clean up their acts
Nongmay’s family opened Mae Ping Thai Dining in 1998.
And she insists there was never a problem before the additional bins arrived.
“I’ve been trying to get the council to help with these bins for the last five years,” she said.
“Other people won’t realise it’s not our mess. But it doesn’t give a good impression of our business if they’re seeing all that rubbish piled up at our back door.”
A Perth and Kinross Council spokesperson said: “We’ve been out to Scott Street car park to clean the area and will be removing some of the containers.
“All businesses that store their waste bins or containers on our property have been asked to keep the area clean.”
Mae Ping Thai Dining made news over the festive season when Star Wars actor Ewen McGregor popped in for a meal.
Nongmay also hit out at the council after the Scott Street car park flooded during Storm Gerrit, sending a torrent of filthy water into the restaurant.
Conversation