SICK days for council waste collection staff are at “an all-time high” due to added pressures caused by cuts, a councillor has claimed.

Glasgow is a “complete mess”, with overflowing bins, overgrown parks and the number of rats on the rise, Paul Carey said.

The Labour Party representative believes this is due to cuts made by the SNP authority.

However, the council has called his comments “unfair”, saying staff face an uphill battle to deal with the actions of some “thoughtless” people.

Mr Carey quoted figures showing on average 14.4 days were lost per employee in the cleansing department last year, up from 12.6 a year earlier and 13.1 in 2016/17.

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“Over the last two years, this minority administration has raised the council tax, supposedly giving better services to the people of Glasgow. However, they have cut services time and time again,” the councillor for Drumchapel/Anniesland said. “The cleansing department has been cut and the city is a complete mess.”

Parks workers have previously said they are being sent to help the cleansing team with refuse collections and bulk uplift – leaving them without time to carry out their own duties.

And the state of the city’s parks has been blasted by members of the public and councillors.

Mr Carey said moving staff was “putting a sticking plaster over the problem”. “All they have done is move people from the parks department into the cleansing department to try to fill the gaps,” he said. “It does not fill the vacancies that have been left.

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“This has put additional stress on the workforce, which has resulted in sickness absences going through the roof. It is at an all-time high within cleansing and that is down to the fact the workforce has been put under extreme pressure to catch up on the additional work created by staff shortages.

“You only need to look around to see the state of the place. The council must address this as soon as possible,”

A council spokeswoman said it was “unfair” on staff to say the city was a “complete mess”. “Council staff are working hard on a daily basis to maintain bin collection and grass cutting schedules, responding to fly-tipping and litter complaints as well as bulk uplift requests we receive from hundreds of thousands of residents,” she said.

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“Unfortunately it can be an uphill battle as some thoughtless people continue to blight our environment with disdain – littering and fly-tipping indiscriminately – which requires the council to divert precious resources in order to clear up after others.

“While there are certain areas within Neighbourhood and Sustainability with higher levels of absence, these are monitored and managed through the appropriate council policy. Absence sometimes requires that we deploy staff with generic roles to carry out priority duties where necessary.”