A row has broken out after some of the most prestigious homes in Edinburgh were granted a seven-day bin collection.

It is thought they are the only homes in Scotland to have the privilege. Heriot Row, Darnaway Street and Abercromby Place – all in the New Town – benefit from daily pick-ups even at weekends after being given the special dispensation to “ease traffic congestion”, according to Edinburgh City Council.

Business premises currently receive pick-ups over five nights a week in central streets including nearby Queen Street and Rose Street – busy office and shopping thoroughfares.

But concerns have been raised at the policy being applied and extended to seven days in the leafy streets outwith the main commercial area of the city centre.

It comes as the council consults on moving to fortnightly collections instead of weekly or twice weekly pick-ups for the rest of city.

Flats in the elegant Georgian terrace of Heriot Row, which was once home to the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, left, can sell for a million pounds. The majority of properties – 88 in Heriot Row, 78 in Abercromby Place and 28 in Darnaway Street – are residential. Locals include Lord Hamilton, Scotland’s most senior judge, and Malcolm Offord, a city economist.

The area is the only one in Edinburgh that has daily uplifts of refuse bags. Neighbours just yards away have to contend with household waste strewn across the streets, where bin bags collected once or twice a week are targeted by vermin.

A spokesman for Edinburgh City Council said night-time collections, five times a week, were introduced to some businesses to cut down on bin lorries in the city centre during the day. He added: “It made sense for these collections to include households in the same area. This has been successful so far and consideration might be given to extend this night-time collection.”

The council said “trader demand” was the reason why the houses had collections on seven days rather than five.

Publisher and artist Alistair Stein, chairman of the Central New Town Residents Association, benefits from the daily pick-up. He is among those who will raise the waste issue at a meeting with council officials next month.

He said: “We never asked for seven-day collections. It was introduced 18 months ago. We would be happy with twice-weekly collections with heavy-duty bin bags.”

Pick-ups are carried out after 6pm every night, he said.

Anya Schwarz, of Dundas Street, which crosses Heriot Row, said: “How much is it costing us for them to have their bins collected every day? Why should they get preferential treatment?”

In nearby Great King Street, a teacher, who asked not to be named, said: “We pay the same in council tax as everyone else in the New Town and we have to climb over ripped bags and garbage on the way to work.”

Andrew Burns, Labour group leader at the council, said: “Commercial properties may well require such a service but I find it hard to see how any residential property would actually need a daily collection service. ”

Communal wheelie bins for the area may be considered at the meeting between residents an the council, although many still oppose their introduction.

Gordon Coutts, QC, chairman of the East Heriot Row Residents’ Association, said: “I’m waiting to hear what they are actually proposing now.“

A council spokesman said homes in Moray Place, Albany Street and Randolph Crescent were also included in the scheme. It is unclear whether these properties receive five-day or seven-day collections.