SCOTTISH First Minster John Swinney has been urged to act as a bin workers’ strike threatens the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The eight-day strike by Unite, Unison and GMB will be a “tough time” for the council and “the impact will not be pleasant over the festival time,” the city’s council leader Cammy Day warned.

Having already warned that strikes could lead to a “stinking Scottish summer,” the unions all announced waste and recycling staff will walk out over pay from August 14 to 22, with 26 of Scotland’s 32 councils affected.

The action comes after the unions rejected the 3.2 per cent pay rise offered.

Local government body Cosla has insisted this was the limit of affordability for councils and a similar strike in 2022 was only resolved when the Scottish government stepped in and provided additional funding for council workers’ pay.

Today Mr Day urged Scottish ministers to “find that little more to avert strike action,” telling BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland: “It is now time for John Swinney or his Cabinet secretary to intervene with a solution, that is what we are waiting for.”

The Labour councillor said that “any more [than the 3.2 per cent offer] would mean reductions and cuts in services from local government.”

After talks took place on Tuesday involving Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison, Cosla leaders and the unions, Mr Day said his understanding is the unions “expect no less than the national settlement, which was around 4 per cent.”

He added: “I think we are nearly there, but local governments across Scotland are stretched to their maximum and we need the government, as they have done the last few years, to support local government and our trade unions and Cosla to find that little bit more and avert strike action.”