Birmingham City Council has confirmed its Easter bin collection schedule – with no collections planned for one day
Birmingham City Council workers at a Mobile Household Waste Centre at Green Lane Mosque in Small Heath, Birmingham
The council has confirmed Easter bin collection details as the strike by union members continues after a breakdown in talks.
Unite members have been embroiled in a bitter dispute with Birmingham City Council since the start of the year, when the authority announced it was axing its Waste Recycling and Collection Officer roles.
The dispute ramped up on March 11 to an all-out strike – with Unite members walking out and protesting at picket lines at the city’s three waste depots.
And after more than a month, bin lorries manned by non-striking crews have been delayed leaving the depots.
Read more: Birmingham bin strike talks break down as union make ‘four demands’
And piles of waste piling up in the city’s streets, any hopes of a pre-Easter resolution ended this week when the latest council offer was rejected on Monday (April 14)
And on Wednesday, Unite said talks had broken down and were making four demands for the strike to end.
Amidst the ongoing dispute, the city council has been battling to keep a basic bin service going, aiming to have one collection of household waste from every city address a week.
Rubbish left at the side of Stratford Rd, Sparkhill, Birmingham, during the bin strike
And it has now confirmed its Easter collection schedule in Birmingham, with a ‘usual’ or ‘strike usual’ service expected on Good Friday (April 18) despite it being a Bank Holiday.
There will also be a limited Easter Saturday (April 19) service as crews battle to clear some of the bin bag backlog.
But there will be no collections on Easter Sunday (April 20).
Then on Easter Monday (April 21) waste collection crews will be back out again ‘as usual’.
Read more: Council issues redundancy notices to striking bin workers but ‘wants a deal’
The council’s five Household Recycling Centres will remain open across the Easter weekend, including on Sunday.
And they will be operating extended hours throughout the weekend, but slots must be booked in advance.
Tyseley, Castle Bromwich, Perry Barr, Sutton Coldfield are open Monday to Friday 7am to 9pm while Kings Norton is 10am to 10pm on weekdays.
While all sites are open from 8am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
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In a statement, a city council spokesperson said: “We continue to make great progress in getting all the waste collection crews out on time and clearing the backlog of rubbish in areas still affected.
“As of Wednesday 16th, we had cleared 20,000 tons of household waste with support from partners, residents and Birmingham City Council staff.
“Thanks to everyone’s hard work, we’re now able to return to following our contingency plan – providing you with one collection each week on your designated collection day.
“Both our waste collection and clean-up crews have been working hard across the city.
Typically, we collect around 1,000 to 1,100 tonnes of waste per day.
“Remarkably, during the current industrial action our teams have managed to collect around 1,500 –1,700 daily despite having a reduced team.
“This just shows the dedication of our teams and the pressing need to transform the service to deliver a more resilient and efficient solution for Birmingham residents.”