Birmingham bin strikes: the rubbish mountains in Selly Park had gone - but an eye-watering stench is back

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.

Since the city council 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

But concern remained that the rubbish will just pile up again in the coming days – as it did before.

“It’s not pleasant, there’s rats about late at night,” one resident living near a heap of waste told me.

Another said foxes were rummaging through the piles of rubbish and tearing the bin bags apart.

“But the main issue is that it just doesn’t look nice – it makes the area look dirty when it’s not,” he continued.

He was also critical of the city council, telling me: “I get the binmen and their point.

“It’s definitely the council’s fault – the fault is squarely at their feet. We’re paying council tax and we’re getting less quality services.”

“It’s ridiculous seeing this in Birmingham,” a resident living close to a pile of rubbish added. “It’s unacceptable – we shouldn’t be seeing this situation.

“The council has to find a solution – they are responsible.”

As the piles of waste were cleared by the refuse workers, one local told me: “The bin bags will pile up again – if it was once a week, it wouldn’t be an issue.

“It’s got to the stage where we’re used to it now,” he added. “We’ve just got to wait for it to be cleared and hope [the dispute] gets resolved soon.”

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 “dedicated workers onto pay levels barely above the minimum wage”.

However, the council’s political leadership has insisted that a “fair and reasonable offer” has been made and that “not a single worker needs to lose a penny”.

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’s tips.

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.

A spokesperson for the city council said: this week: “Negotiations are ongoing and are positive.

“There has been agreement that there will be further discussions at the end of next week under the auspices of ACAS.”