GLASGOW’S SNP leader has admitted the city is suffering from garbage “hotspots” after previously insisting the streets only needed a “spruce up”.

Susan Aitken acknowledged some places faced “particular issues” with fly-tipping.  

The Tories said she was "out-of-touch and out of her depth".

Ms Aitken has faced growing criticism over the state of the city in the run-up to the Cop26 climate conference in November.

Last month, Ms Aitken denied Glasgow’s streets were “filthy” and insisted most of the city centre was “looking pretty good”, despite complaints about litter and rats.

She said Glasgow merely needed a “spruce up as we emerge from Covid”.

World leaders, including President Joe Biden, are due in the city in just over a week. 

Last night, audience members on BBC’s Question Time, which came from Glasgow, raised concerns about how the streets would look during Cop26.

Council refuse workers are set to go on strike during the summit unless a pay dispute is resolved.

On BBC Radio Scotland today, Ms Aitken said the pandemic had had a “significant impact” on Glasgow’s cleaning services, but insisted improvements were underway.

She said: “We’re very clear that the pandemic has had a very significant impact on our cleansing services. The recovery from that is coinciding with Cop26, but the recovery from that actually is moving at pace.”

She acknowledged some parts of the city have “particular issues”.

“We’ve had teams out in recent weeks, focusing on issues of fly-tipping, where there are problems with commercial waste in the streets, and we are seeing a difference there.

“A lot of this is about behaviour of course, and the council has to respond to that behaviour.

“But we also need for people to try and change their behaviour, you know, it’s not the council that’s fly-tipping.”

Ms Aitken said she was still confident the city can be “spruced up” by the time of the summit.

She continued: “There are still some spots, hotspots, where we have particular challenges that are largely down to issues like fly-tipping.

“Environmental crime, to be honest, is what we’re having to respond to.”

She urged residents to report any fly-tipping incidents where they see them.

Saying Glasgow’s cleansing services are getting back on track, Ms Aitken added: “According to Keep Scotland Beautiful, Edinburgh actually had much worse problems with litter throughout the pandemic.

“And nobody said that they shouldn’t have the Edinburgh International Festival.”

Glasgow Tory MSP Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “Once again, Susan Aitken has proved that she is completely out-of-touch and out of her depth.

“We raised concerns about the mess in Glasgow weeks ago, yet instead of focusing on tackling the problems, all we hear from the SNP is more deflection and excuses.

“The appalling state of Glasgow’s streets has been caused by years of SNP incompetence and this latest car-crash interview shows again that Susan Aitken is not up to the job.”