My family can feed! Surreal moment giant rat crashes meeting to thank Birmingham for rubbish mountains

Tuesday (April 8) marked the first full council meeting since a major incident was declared over the bins strike chaos amid concerns of risks to public health.

The start of the meeting took a slightly surreal turn however, when a Birmingham resident in a rat costume was spotted among the faces in the council chamber’s public gallery.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) before the meeting got underway, the ‘rat’ remained in character and said he was grateful to the city council.

“They [the council] have done this for the rats – it’s amazing,” he said. “I want it to continue.

“We need to continue to leave the bins out so my family can feed.

“Selly Oak has a huge amount of rubbish especially from students and it means that all my relatives can feed in a way that means we can go around and rampage in the streets – it’s great.”

The rat went on to urge the council to ‘continue doing nothing’.

During public questions, the resident behind the rodent asked Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment, when the rat population will decline and when streets will return to an “acceptable state”.

Coun Mahmood said he understands and sympathises with residents’ frustrations and that’s why a major incident was declared

He went on to praise West Midlands Police for their help in ensuring trucks can leave depots “unhindered”, which he said had a “significant impact” on the council’s ability to deploy vehicles to collect waste.

Coun Mahmood added it is now expected that the council will be able to achieve the objective of one residual waste collection per week for each household as part of its contingency plan.

The city council has previously said that declaring a major incident would initially allow it to increase street-cleansing, work with partners to better manage health and fire risks, allow increased data and intelligence sharing and explore support from neighbouring authorities.

It said earlier on Tuesday (April 8), that all of its waste wagons were deployed from its three depots citywide this morning.

Unite has previously argued that the council’s plans to scrap the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role would force “dedicated workers onto pay levels barely above the minimum wage”.

But the council’s political leadership has repeatedly insisted that a “fair and reasonable offer” has been made.

“Not a single worker needs to lose a penny,” Coun Majid Mahmood, the council’s cabinet member for environment, told the LDRS recently. “Every worker has been offered the same grade and the same pay within the street scene division of the city council.

“We’re here because we are trying to transform and modernise the service.”