On November 23, Plovdiv mayor Slavcho Atanasov, said that in a check he personally did, he found irregularities in the cleaning of two of the city's regions, Trakiya and Central, the Plovdiv municipal press office announced.

Atanasov said he had pictures of containers overflowing with waste. The pictures were taken in the afternoon, Dnevnik daily quoted Atanasov as saying.

The pictures were sent to the regional mayors and to the company responsible for Ploviv's waste collection, Chistota.

"In a few days I will publish a standpoint on the contract with Chistota, but this situation cannot continue, if only because in all of Plovdiv's regions the situation is the same," Atanasov said.

On November 26, Atanasov would issue an order to all regional mayors to start their working day with a walk through the neighbourhoods to look for irregularities.

They would also receive instructions to make an inventory of all the potholes in the streets in the city, Dnevnik said.