With 17,000 tons of rubbish piling up on Birmingham‘s streets amid a bitter ongoing strike by bin workers, the local authority has declared a ‘major incident’.
And one road on a council boundary line is a stark illustration of the crisis – with black sacks piled high on one pavement, but the other side completely clean and empty.
Workers have been striking for weeks after plans by Labour-run Birmingham City Council to reduce waste collection roles and pay in a bid to shore up its finances.
Rats have thrived in the city’s filth – with pest control expert Will Timms, known locally as Birmingham’s ‘rat man’, revealing some are now as big as small dogs.
In the Walkers Heath area of the city, Chelworth Road sits right on the boundary line – with the side packed with rubbish located within the Birmingham council area.
But the clean side is within Bromsgrove District Council, part of Conservative-run Worcestershire County Council where bin collections are operating as normal.
Adam Kent, a Worcestershire councillor for the Wythall area, revealed the problem in a photo he posted on social media on March 21 which was later widely shared.
Chelworth Road in the Walkers Heath area of Birmingham sits on the boundary line. Labour-run Birmingham City Council is responsible for bin collections on the left; and Bromsgrove District Council, part of Conservative-run Worcestershire County Council, carries them out on the right
Rubbish bags piled up on the Birmingham council side of Chelworth Road in Walkers Heath
Will Timms, known locally as Birmingham’s ‘rat man,’ is called out to help with rat infestations
Mr Timms said the size of rats in Birmingham is growing, with some now as big as small dogs
Resident Inna Pedryc, 60, told the Birmingham Mail at the time: ‘They haven’t collected the recycling since January and the general waste has not been collected for three weeks – it’s awful, foxes and rats rip the bags.’
Her neighbour Ann Flint, 78, added: ‘I’ve been putting my rubbish in my bin cupboard but it’s getting too much and I’ll have to put it in the garden.’
‘I’ve not got a car so I couldn’t take it to the tip. I’m on the Birmingham side opposite Bromsgrove and they are lucky. They are very pleasant but they don’t offer to take our bins!’
Mr Kent described the situation on the Birmingham side of the border as ‘deeply concerning’, adding that residents were ‘rightly worried about the health risks from mounting rubbish, including the spread of rats and other pests’.
The walkout has left the streets of the UK’s second largest city covered in waste, attracting vermin, particularly rats, which have thrived in the filth.
Mr Timms, who owns WJ Pest Solutions, is often called out to help with infestations – and said his workload has doubled in the past few months after the bin strike began.
He told The i Paper: ‘There’s a real sense of disbelief about the scale of what’s happening here. I’ve been doing this for 11 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this.
Rats on the streets of Birmingham last month amid the bitter ongoing strike by bin workers
The walkout has left Birmingham’s streets covered in waste, attracting vermin, particularly rats
Birmingham City Council is declaring a major incident over the impact of the ongoing bin strike
‘The rats are not only getting bigger, but they’re also getting bolder, venturing into people’s homes and even destroying cars.’
Mr Timms, who typically manages one or two callouts a day, now handles as many as four or five, often covering up to 170 miles a day across Birmingham.
He added: ‘The smell is vile – I was on a rat job this morning, and as soon as I got out of the van, I was heaving. You’ve got dirty nappies all over the floor, incontinence pads.
‘You can smell the [rat] urine in the air as well; it’s like a strong ammonia. I was thinking, ‘How the hell can you live like this round here?’ It’s diabolical.’
Mr Timms added that some of the rats are now as big as small dogs, growing to lengths of 22 inches.
Birmingham council claims the daily blocking of depots by Unite union picket lines has meant vehicles deployed as part of a contingency plan are struggling to leave to collect waste.
It says that declaring a major incident allows it to increase the availability of street cleansing and fly-tipping removal with an extra 35 crews around the city.
The move was backed by communities minister Jim McMahon, who said the Government ‘stands ready’ to respond to any request for extra resources.
Members of the Unite union in the city are holding an all-out strike in a long-running dispute
The strike has led to rubbish piling up in the streets and residents complaining about rats
The council said its major incident will initially increase the availability of street cleansing
But Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake called for ministers to hold a high-level Cobra meeting to respond to the dispute and bring in private binmen to ‘clear up Labour’s mess’.
He told MPs: ‘It is shameful, a national embarrassment, that one of our nation’s great cities, our second city, finds itself in such a bleak situation.’
He added: ‘It is the people who pay the price – mountains of rubbish blighting the streets of Birmingham for more than 20 days and no end in sight to a dispute with, of course, their union paymasters Unite.
‘Almost every area is plagued by overflowing bins, rats… and opportunistic flytippers exploiting the chaos. This, the reality of Labour in local government.’
Council leader John Cotton said: ‘I respect the right to strike and protest, however actions on the picket line must be lawful and… we are seeing a significant impact on residents and the city’s environment. Unless we declare a major incident and deploy the waste service’s contingency plan, then we would be unable to clear the backlog of waste on the streets or improve the frequency of collections.’
But Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘The council could easily resolve this dispute but instead it seems hellbent on imposing its plan of demotions and pay cuts at all costs. I urge it to rethink this disastrous strategy.’
