{"id":47354,"date":"2025-04-24T19:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T19:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/47354\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T19:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T19:08:16","slug":"i-visited-birmingham-street-where-bins-strike-misery-continues-despite-citys-clean-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/47354\/","title":{"rendered":"I visited Birmingham street where bins strike misery continues despite city\u2019s clean-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham City Council has cleared thousands of tonnes of waste since declaring a major incident last month – but frustration remains<\/p>\n

17:35, 24 Apr 2025Updated 17:35, 24 Apr 2025<\/p>\n

\"AA heap of rubbish bags in Selly Park, Birmingham before they were cleared by refuse workers on Thursday, April 24(Image: Alexander Brock)<\/p>\n

Birmingham residents are still being forced to endure living just metres away from heaps of rubbish despite the clean-up of the city.<\/p>\n

Communities across Brum had been previously blighted by enormous piles of bin bags due to the industrial action, which was triggered by a dispute between the council and Unite the union.<\/p>\n

Since the city council<\/a> declared a major incident towards the end of March, positive progress has been made and, according to a government minister, around 26,000 tonnes of excess waste has now been cleared.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Calls for Birmingham Council\u2019s divisive \u2018rat tax\u2019 charge to be permanently scrapped<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But a trip to Selly Park in south Birmingham<\/a> this week underscored how the misery caused by the bleak situation is not over just yet.<\/p>\n

For the residents living in Kitchener Road, there was a sense of relief around two weeks ago when a huge mountain of waste on a street corner was finally cleared<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But two separate heaps of rubbish and an eye-watering stench greeted me when I returned to the road on a warm and sunny Thursday afternoon, April 24.<\/p>\n

Just minutes after residents voiced their frustration to me on the doorstep, refuse workers arrived and threw the bin bags into the back of a truck, before clearing the leftover litter.<\/p>\n

But concern remained that the rubbish will just pile up again in the coming days – as it did before.<\/p>\n

\"AA pile of bin bags in Kitchener Road, Selly Park in Birmingham on Thursday, April 24 – shortly before they were cleared by refuse workers(Image: Alexander Brock)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not pleasant, there\u2019s rats about late at night,\u201d one resident living near a heap of waste told me.<\/p>\n

Another said foxes were rummaging through the piles of rubbish and tearing the bin bags apart.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the main issue is that it just doesn\u2019t look nice – it makes the area look dirty when it\u2019s not,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

He was also critical of the city council, telling me: \u201cI get the binmen and their point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely the council\u2019s fault – the fault is squarely at their feet. We\u2019re paying council tax and we\u2019re getting less quality services.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Government minister’s message as hopes for Birmingham council crisis inquiry fade<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous seeing this in Birmingham,\u201d a resident living close to a pile of rubbish added. \u201cIt\u2019s unacceptable – we shouldn\u2019t be seeing this situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council has to find a solution – they are responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘We’re used to it now’<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the piles of waste were cleared by the refuse workers, one local told me: \u201cThe bin bags will pile up again – if it was once a week, it wouldn\u2019t be an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got to the stage where we\u2019re used to it now,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to wait for it to be cleared and hope [the dispute] gets resolved soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bins strike was triggered by a dispute between the council and Unite, with the union saying plans to scrap a Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role would force \u201cdedicated workers onto pay levels barely above the minimum wage\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the council\u2019s political leadership has insisted that a \u201cfair and reasonable offer\u201d has been made and that “not a single worker needs to lose a penny”.<\/p>\n

Since the major incident was declared, a number of measures were taken to clear the huge backlog of waste, including the extension of opening hours at the city\u2019s tips.<\/p>\n

\"BinBin bags in Kitchener Road, Selly Park in Birmingham are cleared by refuse workers on Thursday, April 24(Image: Alexander Brock)<\/p>\n

Recent talks between the council and Unite failed to reach a resolution but independent public body ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) are set to be involved in negotiations next week.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the city council said: this week: \u201cNegotiations are ongoing and are positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been agreement that there will be further discussions at the end of next week under the auspices of ACAS.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City Council has cleared thousands of tonnes of waste since declaring a major incident last month –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,7831,984,748,393,728,4884,528,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-47354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-bin-strike","10":"tag-birmingham-city-council","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-labour-party","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114394517566877521","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}