“I would caution the residents of Birmingham<\/a> that it will take a little while,” he told BirminghamLive during his first round of official media interviews since being made leader of a new minority coalition made up of Greens, Liberal Democrats<\/a> and Better Birmingham Independents.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/b> 16 months without recycling is shameful – Birmingham’s next leaders must take immediate action<\/b> <\/a><\/p>\n He was referring back to a press conference prior to last month’s local elections<\/a>, when former Birmingham<\/a> Labour leader John Cotton announced an end to the strike was \u201cwithin sight\u201d, saying a ‘ballpark’ proposal was hammered out between the union and Labour politicians including mayor Richard Parker.<\/p>\n The ‘agreement’ included a promise of compensatory payouts to hundreds of bin workers affected by job cuts and downgrades of up to \u00a316,000 each to end the dispute.<\/p>\n Birmingham City Council leader Roger Harmer<\/p>\n Speaking of the state of affairs, Coun Harmer said: “Labour (and Unite) announced what was a proposal (shorly before the election), it was not a deal…a deal can only be made between the top officers in the council and the union. Top officers were not involved in that process so it can’t be a deal.<\/p>\n “Some elements (of the Labour\/union proposal) were interesting and we always welcome any contributions that might help drive us towards it (ending the dispute).<\/p>\n “But one of the things that has dogged resolution of this dispute is people endlessly arguing about who said what and when… As a new administration it’s important for us to draw a line under all those arguments and discussions and go and look at all the facts, take advice, negotiate and come up with a solution.<\/p>\n “I would caution the residents of Birmingham it will take a little while. It took Labour 18 months to get nowhere.<\/p>\n “Clearly we want this done as soon as possible but equally we need to get this done properly so in a few months it doesn’t just break…we have to got to button it down and go through all the due process and it will take a little while.”<\/p>\n He would not be drawn on how long ‘a while’ could be, other than to say it was his ‘top priority.’<\/p>\n But when asked if one option he was considering involved firing striking workers, he said: “That is absolutely not what we\u2019re aiming to do. That would be a sign of failure if we got to that point.”<\/p>\n While the strike endures, the prospect of rapidly introducing new bin collection regimes including weekly food waste and alternating black bin and recycling bin collections also remained distant, he added.<\/p>\n “Our position is that while the service is not reliable, and it is not, then we should not move to fortnightly collections.”<\/p>\n He said this was in part because of continuing missed collections and unreliability which jeopardised the way ahead. He would not countenance people having to wait up to a month for a collection.<\/p>\n “We want to get to a position where services are completely reliable.”<\/p>\n The previous administration had previously agreed to roll out a new weekly food waste service and switch to fortnightly collections from this month onwards.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Pictures show extent of ‘devastating’ fire at former college as MP says council has ‘questions to answer’<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n The strike, which has dragged on now for around 17 months, was initially triggered by a dispute between the council and Unite the union.<\/p>\n Coun Cotton had pledged before the local elections that a Labour administration would push the deal through as a matter of absolute priority if they remained in charge.<\/p>\n The timing of the update was met with scepticism and anger from opposition councillors at the time, with the council\u2019s Tory<\/a> group leader describing it as a \u201cpathetic attempt to hold on to power before [Labour] disappear into the abyss\u201d.<\/p>\n Former council leader Cllr John Cotton announcing the ‘ballpark deal’ just before the local election -Credit:Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live<\/p>\n Since then Unite had warned the \u201cdeal to end the bin strikes struck by the old political leadership hangs in the balance\u201d while council officers denied there had ever been a deal.<\/p>\n![\"Birmingham](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0f0253b10192843e3032544865e625e1.jpeg\"\/)
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