Birmingham locals face rats and rubbish in city-wide bin strike

Birmingham residents facing weeks of rats and rubbish pile-ups after the extension of a bin workers’ strike have said the situation is “depressing”.

For months, household rubbish, fly-tipping and bulky waste have been building up across the city as refuse workers who are members of Unite have walked out in a dispute over pay and jobs.

On Tuesday, nearly 400 council bin workers began an all-out indefinite strike, which Unite has warned could lead to Birmingham’s bin chaos stretching into the summer months.

Fida Hussein, a delivery driver who lives in Small Heath, told The i Paper the situation was “pathetic”.

“It’s depressing the community,” he said.

Mr Hussein said he had waited for two weeks before his rubbish was collected on Tuesday.

From April, Birmingham residents will start to have waste collections reduced from weekly to fortnightly.

The move is part of Birmingham City Council’s cost-cutting measures. It follows the council declaring itself bankrupt by issuing a Section 114 notice in 2023.

Mr Hussein said the less frequent bin collections were already having an impact.

“What people are doing because their own bins are filled now, so they’re just dumping it anywhere,” he said. “They’re taking advantage, dumping wardrobes and fridges as well now.”

The council has paused all new bookings for bulky waste collections but has said it will take away rubbish booked in prior to the suspension.

Residents have been advised to put out their household waste as normal and leave it out if it is not collected.

Kerbside recycling collections are currently on hold but recycling centres are open, with some operating extended opening hours during the period of industrial action.

Mr Hussein said he has seen more rats in the city since the strike started. “The vermin have increased, the rodents have increased. It’s very depressing,” he said.

Other Birmingham residents previously told The i Paper that the uncollected waste and infestations of vermin had impacted their mental health.

Vijay Singh, who lives in the Balsall Heath area, had to pay around £600 for pest control to get rid of mice in his home, said: “That’s what makes me ill… I’m suffering.”

Another Birmingham taxpayer who lives in Bournville told The i Paper she had already had her bin collections reduced from weekly to fortnightly because of the industrial action, while green waste has not been collected for five weeks.

The resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “Most of the bins, we’ve been pushing them out and then they’re not being collected, and then we’re bringing them back in, because you just don’t know. So in the end, you just leave them out hoping that somebody will actually come along.”

She added that it was “most annoying” that council tax was increasing to 7.5 per cent and councillors had agreed to give themselves an allowance increase.

In January, the council passed a motion for members to receive an above inflation rise of 5.7 per cent.

‘Everybody’s disgusted’

“It just seems wrong. I just don’t know how they’ve got the nerve to actually do it,” she said. “I think everybody’s disgusted.”

A neighbour with three children has been forced to collect their household waste in the garage and others have been taking their recycling to waste centres, the resident said.

“I don’t particularly want to do it, but it may get to the stage where I might have to. I don’t see why we should,” she said.

“I don’t know why people just don’t stop paying their council tax. That’s what I would do. I think if they stopped paying, then perhaps, if everybody did that, they might do something about it.”

Unite said it was escalating action over the council’s use of temporary labour to undermine the strike.

In a statement, Birmingham City Council said: “This escalation of industrial action will mean greater disruption to residents – despite the fair and reasonable offer that the council made to Unite the Union.”

It added that “the small number of workers” whose wages are impacted changes to the waste service have been offered alternative jobs.

Councillor Robert Alden, leader of the Conservative Group, said Birmingham had been “blighted by almost 800 days of bin disputes in the last eight years because of Labour’s complete failure to resolve equal pay“.

He added: “The impact of their latest failure has left Birmingham residents with a double whammy, paying more in council tax while seeing their streets overrun with rubbish and rats.”