Birmingham bin strikes: Latest update as locals volunteer to clean streets over Easter

Seven bin lorries parked up by Birmingham Central Mosque at 10am on Sunday. Pictures show several council workers working as a slow trickle of cars entered the site to get rid of their waste.

In one shot, seven men in total can be seen scrambling to empty one car of a few black bin bags.

While few residents took advantage of the Easter Sunday mobile collection point, tonnes of fly-tipped waste was still in evidence around the city. Bin bags which appear to have been ripped open by vermin with rotting food spilling out lay stacked on street corners along with old sofas, beds and building materials.

One resident said: “It’s madness to me to have so many bin men operating these mobile collections when the worst rubbish is piled up on the streets.

“Birmingham is a grim place to be at the moment but it seems plain daft to have bin men twiddling their thumbs when there’s piles of rubbish on the streets.”

Another said: “The rubbish is attracting rats and all sorts of other vermin.

What’s the latest?

Birmingham City Council is still locked in a bitter war with the Unite union over pay and conditions. The council declared a major incident in the city following the all out strike which began last month.

Bin crews, who say a change of job roles will leave them up to £8,000-a-year worse off, have been striking since March 11 and say they will continue until September.

The low turn-out comes two weeks after locals in Tyseley swarmed bin men with their waste and created a 5ft high rubbish mountain which took hours to clear.

This is the latest mobile refuse collection spots, with a new location chosen each day.

Volunteers from Project Clean Sparkhill were out in force cleaning the streets over the bank holiday weekend.

City environment boss Councillor Majid Mahmood said: "We have prioritised our street cleansing teams to remove fly tips that have accumulated on the city’s streets.

"An operational decision was taken to divert resource from one of our mobile household waste centres next week to fly tip removals. This will remain under constant review to ensure we continue to deploy our resources to the areas of greatest need.

"Our approach will be evolving as we work tirelessly to clear up our city."