The Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport also said the booking system at Tyseley Household Recycling Centre would be scrapped to improve “accessibility.”
Fly-tipping remains an issue on Tarry Road in Alum Rock(Image: Wajid Hussain)
Birmingham City Council’s bins boss pledged the return of free bulky waste collections if Labour win next month’s local elections.
Councillor Majid Mahmood announced on Saturday (April 18) that every household would be entitled to the service if his party was to triumph on May 7.
Labour originally scrapped the free bulky waste scheme under cost-cutting plans designed to save the city council £1 million.
Read More: Handsworth incident live as police and ambulances respond ‘near HMO’
It was replaced with a fee paying service which has paused for more than a year due to ongoing industrial action by Unite the Union members.
Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport also said the booking system at Tyseley Household Recycling Centre would be scrapped to improve “accessibility.”
Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source.
Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.
He said: “Following the success of our expanded mobile household waste service and improvements made to our household recycling centres, we are now going even further.
“In the next Labour term, we will introduce a free bulky waste collection for every household in the city.”
After repeating the pledge, he said: “No barriers, no hassle, just a simpler way to get rid of unwanted household items.”
Scrapping bulky waste collections is said to be one of the reasons behind the explosion in fly-tipping across the city.
Despite enforcement, CCTV and other measures, sofa, mattresses, furniture and other household waste is commonly dumped on roadsides and caused anger and frustration and national embarrassment.
Prior to the suspension of bulky waste collections, the council charged just under £50 to remove 10 items with two bin bags count as an item.
Birmingham, Sandwell, Walsall, Solihull and Coventry will hold all out elections in May.
Here, a year-long bin strike, the need for intervention by external commissioners and appalling examples of failure, poor leadership and mismanagement – some first exposed by BirminghamLive – have had a stinging impact on Labour’s reputation locally.
Party insiders warn that the message they are getting on the doorstep is unequivocal – ‘they don’t want Labour running the city any more,’ said one. ‘They want change.’