The British Army has been called in to rodent-ridden Birmingham as pest control experts label the city ‘apocalyptic’ due to the ongoing bin strikes.
The government has asked for help from the armed forces to tackle the crisis as the situation in Britain’s second city deteriorates.
A handful of office-based planners will provide logistical support to try and stop the situation spiraling further into disarray – although soldiers will not be deployed to clear the mountains of rubbish that litter Birmingham’s streets.
A government spokesperson said: ‘The government has already provided a number of staff to support the council with logistics and make sure the response on the ground is swift to address the associated public health risks.
‘In light of the ongoing public health risk, a small number of office-based military personnel with operational planning expertise have been made available to Birmingham City Council to further support in this area.’
A pest control expert has been forced to patrol the streets of Birmingham armed with an air-rifle as a swelling rat army, some said to be ‘the size of cats’, plague the UK’s second city’s streets.
Droves of monstrously sized rodents have been gorging on the growing pile of leftover refuse as almost 400 bin workers have intermittently been on strike in Labour-run Birmingham since January.
Additionally an increase in fly-tipping and HS2 building work have helped spark an invasion of pesky rats and mice, with residents finding rodents tucked behind wheelie bins and nestling under car bonnets.
William Timms of WJ Pest Solutions crouches by a mountain of bin bags while wielding a high-powered air rifle in the Balsall Heath area of bin strike-hit Birmingham. Mr Timms occasionally uses the rifle when safe and or required for effective pest control only
Pest control firms say they have seen business increase by 50 per cent or more due to the ongoing strikes
A dead rodent which is believed to be more than a foot long was found by a MailOnline reporter on their visit to rat-infested Birmingham
Homes are being invaded by plagues of pests and cars are being gnawed at as overflowing bins continue to pile high, creating a rat paradise of an estimated 17,000 tons of rubbish.
The cash-strapped local authority, Birmingham City Council, has since declared a ‘major incident’ as fears for public health continued to grow, with heightened temperatures due in coming weeks, putting locals at huge risk of disease.
In an interview with Times Radio, Health Secretary Wes Streeting spoke of his concerns for Britain’s second city as conditions continue to plummet, adding: ‘As the bin bags are piling up, we see rats and other vermin crawling around.’
The mountains of rubbish have become so commonplace on Birmingham’s streets that its difficult to often decipher between people’s bin waste and fly tipping, as furious residents become increasingly upset with both the bin workers and council.
But, more than five weeks into bitter disputes with Birmingham City council over working conditions and pay, bin workers have told the BBC that they are hoping for a ‘breakthrough’.
And as the rat chaos continues to overrun the West Midlands city, native Birmingham ex-military turned pest control expert of 12 years, William Timms, 47, brandishes weaponry as he battles against the ‘apocalyptic’ scenes.
Revealing he had caught a 22-inch long rat in recent weeks, he told MailOnline: ‘We’re in 2025 now and in some areas of Birmingham it’s like a third-world country. It’s just disgusting. It really is.’
Known locally as Birmingham’s ‘rat man‘, the owner of WJ Pest Solutions previously claimed police had even been called out to shoot some of the rats due to the sheer volume of vermin plaguing the second city.
Fed-up residents in strike-hit Birmingham have reported seeing ‘rats as big as cats’ feeding on discarded food
Pest controller William Timms says he captured a 22in specimen last week amid Birmingham’s ongoing bin strikes
Mr Timms revealed police had even been called out to shoot some rats due to the sheer volume of vermin feasting on rubbish
Huge rats rummaging in the bins on the streets of Birmingham – a city overrun with vermin
Residents of the Midlands city have said ongoing bin strikes, an increase in fly-tipping and HS2 building work has sparked an invasion of pesky rats
‘I’ve been doing this 12 years and I’ve never seen rubbish built up like this, and the rats are in a perfect natural environment.
‘If you put a male and female rat in that environment within a year you’re going to have just under a million rats,’ he added.
‘They’ve got a five star banquet out there now in a hotel to go with it. So it’s going to be absolutely diabolical.’
Describing the current situation in Birmingham as a ‘rat’s paradise’, the pest control expert, 47, divulged that the rats will only get bigger as they feast on the droves of protein available in the ever-growing waste.
And as people continue to fly-tip ‘on top of each other’ in certain parts of the city, the situation only becomes more ‘diabolical’, Mr Timms said, while warning of the danger posed by the diseases carried by the rodents plaguing the city.
‘The council need to get it sorted straight away,’ he said whilst revealing he had been to an ‘apocalyptic’ children’s playground overrun with maggots, bot flies, bluebottle flies, and cockroaches amid rubbish stacked five-foot high.
‘This whole lot could have been prevented. I find the council and unite are both to blame. They’re fighting against each other,’ he added.
‘It’s just disgusting that it’s gone on for so long because it’s affecting not only people’s mental health, but physical health as well.’
Pest control experts have warned the build-up of refuse caused by a bin collection strike poses a huge public health danger
Rubbish has remained piled up on Shakespeare Street in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham
Police have been at a picket line earlier this month to help get bin wagons out of the Atlas Road council depot in Birmingham
‘You’ve got the diseases that the rats carry as well as the toxins released by dead rats. You breathe that in, and it could give you breathing difficulties.
‘So it’s not just coming into contact with the rats. It’s actually in the presence of them. You’re breathing that toxin can make me seriously ill.’
‘It’s quite possible people have already been made seriously,’ he added.
As part of more painful budget plans, the cash-strapped council which was declared effectively bankrupt in 2023, want to increase the ‘rat tax’, charging for pest control in the rodent-ridden city – a service which was previously free.
The £24 per call out charge has already outraged locals, as the council plan to up prices once again to £26.40.
Rebel councillor Sam Forsyth has since slammed the Labour-run council, telling BirminghamLive she had ‘no choice’ but to vote against their budget proposals as increased ‘rat tax’ would hit the city’s poorest the hardest.
It comes shortly after weeks of bin chaos in the city, as mountains of rubbish began to overflow on the streets and outside of homes as binmen took to the picket lines for several days in January and February.
And as the dirty vermin continue to make Birmingham their playground, locals have given insight to the skin-crawling scenes in their daily lives as they continue to frequently come face-to-face with the pests.
Piles of rubbish and overflowing bins have been seen across Birmingham amid strike action
Discarded waste which remained uncollected is seen here in Shakespeare Street, Sparkhill
Members of the Unite trade union have declared strike action in Birmingham amid a pay dispute – bin workers are seen here outside a council depot in the district of Tyseley
Refuse bags are seen left discarded in the Bordesley Green district of England’s second city
The rat infestation has become so bad the rodents have been dubbed the Squeaky Blinders because they appear to have a grip on the city – much like the Peaky Blinders gang of the nineteenth century which inspired the eponymous BBC drama.
University student Sandy Du gave insight on how the horrors of living alongside the rodents ‘the size of baby cats’, that have taken over her local streets.
The sociology student, 22, said: ‘They’re horrible! We see them all the time near our accommodation at night, scrounging through the bins and rubbish.
‘There’s lots of them, they make your skin crawl, they’re a horrible sight and very off putting.’
Sandy added: ‘They’re big brown ones, like the size of baby cats. They’re always around the bin area and the situation will only get worse with the rubbish men on strike.
‘Bins are left full to brimming and overflowing and when they’re being left and not being emptied it attracts even more vermin.’
Branding the pests as ‘disgusting’, she pointed out how the rodents pose an ‘alarming’ health risk to residents, adding: ‘I’m afraid if what they might be spreading.
‘They hide away then come out on the prowl at night, when it’s a big quieter bit when many students are coming and going.’
The CCTV footage shows four workers running out of the compound after the rats jumped out from the mound of rubbish on the floor
The workers rush towards the exit gate as the rats hurry towards them before making their way back into the pile of bin bags
Residents drag wheelie bins full of rubbish through a park to reach the static collection in Tyseley
Sandy said that whilst she sympathised with the bin men striking for better pay, she urged them to ‘re-negotiate with the council and try to reach a resolution as soon as possible.’
Former university student Chanel Welton also recalls seeing ‘huge rats swarming the streets’ during her time living in the West Midlands city.
‘It’s not what you want to see at any time of the day or night,’ she said: ‘It’s very off putting for anyone going into the city centre.’
The 16-year-old, who runs a social media agency, told MailOnline: ‘They were huge rats and quite scary to see. They were mainly around New Street which is always a busy area.’
Chanel, who was visiting a client in the second city, added: ‘I heard about the bin strike here and piles of rubbish causing an even bigger rat infestation.
‘I’m from the countryside originally, and grown up seeing wildlife and bird life so it was a shock living in a city and seeing rats on the streets.
‘I can only imagine the situation will be getting worse with no rubbish collections. ‘
Barista Ellie Newson, working at Medicine Bakery in the Mail Box, told how her parents were ‘moaning about the bin men being on strike’.
Mountains of rubbish are seen in a passageway between Ernest Road and Eton Road in Balsall Heath, Birmingham. The council says 90 out of 200 waste collection crews are still collecting
With mice also increasingly prevalent, Birmingham’s cat population are taking full advantage
Mounds of rubbish were dumped at the site of a scheduled mobile rubbish collection in Tyseley
She said: ‘They’re collecting the household waste but not the recyclables where we live in Sutton Coldfield.
‘It’s very annoying and my dad is having to do lots of trips to the tip, which as council tax payers we shouldn’t have to be doing ourselves.’
Ellie, 22, who works in the heart of the city, said while she had been ‘lucky enough not to see any rats’ she was aware of the huge problem.
She said: ‘No one wants to see a rat. We see foxes where we are, some dead, but they’re better any day than rats!’
Ellie, who grew up in Edgbaston, and is desperately looking for an environmental job post university said the strike was ‘creating more problems.’
‘It is a shame it has come to this,’ she said: ‘We understand why they are doing it, but striking doesn’t always solve the issues and sometimes make them worse.
‘In this case it is stinking rubbish being left in streets bringing out more rats than ever.’
Cab driver Tarick, who declined to be fully named, said: ‘I see rats all the time, great big ones, and there will be more around because of the strike. It is filthy here in the city now.’
BIRMINGHAM: A dead rodent pictured on a street in the city as mountains of rubbish continue to pile high
Bags of rubbish are almost as high as this resident wheeling her overflowing bin to the collection lorry
‘But what is the council doing about the problem? Absolutely nothing.
‘No one is doing their job proper now, the local authority is failing us, the bin men are failing us.’
In Drews Lane in Washwood Heath, two miles east of the city centre, huge rats have been taking advantage of construction work on the HS2 rail project.
Resident Kim Blakeman said: ‘The rats are like small cats and their tails are really chunky.
‘They are in and out of our recycling bins, and since HS2 has started across the road we’ve had more of an influx.
‘The council don’t bother litter picking our road anymore. People fly-tip, it’s a perfect nesting site and the rats come and feed in our bins.’
Ms Blakeman said she and her neighbours had been forced to take their rubbish to the tip last week as the binmen would not touch it.
She continued: ‘The litter from HS2 is blowing over the road into our gardens. They are moving so much dirt and it should be dampened down but it’s not. I refuse to clean my windows now because they keep getting dirty.
Residents dragging bins towards mobile collection lorries are becoming a common sight in Birmingham
Birmingham residents waited patiently in heavy traffic to drop off rubbish at a temporary refuse collection site on Clapgate Lane on Friday morning
‘You can see rats jumping out of cars. I opened my bonnet last week and found a load of rat droppings inside.’
More than 4,000 desperate residents in the neighbourhoods of Sparkhill, Aston, Balsall Heath and Selly Park, signed an online petition calling the Labour-run city council to resolve the dispute after being overrun by rats feasting off rubbish and rotting food.
Tariq Mohammed, 70, who lives in Sparkhill, said: ‘Rubbish is always here. I have not seen any rubbish being collected for months and people just come and throw their rubbish on the street.
‘The smell is so bad and the rats are everywhere but what can we do.
‘No one is listening to us, the councillors are just sitting in their office doing nothing.
‘No one is doing a proper job and it is the people like us who live here who are suffering.’
Another resident affected by the rodents, Hawida Osman, 51, added: ‘It’s terrible. I have seen rats coming into my house from here.
‘The area is already dirty and the piles of uncollected rubbish is just making the situation worse.
Tons of rubbish was dumped in a car park that was to house a temporary refuse collection point in Birmingham
‘There are already piles of rubbish everywhere but soon it will be like a mountain unless the council does something.’
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.
Nearly 1.2 million people are likely to be affected by the strike action – which could roll into the summer.
The Unite union says its members face pay cuts after the scrapping of waste collection and recycling officer roles. But the Labour-run council has insisted its offer is ‘fair and reasonable’.
Unite has warned bin disruption in Birmingham could stretch into the summer after refuse workers voted in favour of extending their strike mandate over the council’s use of temporary labour to ‘undermine’ their industrial action.
Birmingham City Council disputes Unite’s claims that 150 workers could lose £8,000 per year in pay, and insists plans to restructure the service are a crucial part of the authority’s efforts to become financially sustainable.
The local authority has also said 90 waste collection crews are still out collecting bins, out of a total of 200, with residents being urged still to put their bins out for crews to collect when they could.
Unite should focus on ‘negotiating in good faith, drop their opposition to changes needed to resolve long-standing pay issues and get round the table’ to bring the Birmingham bin strike to an end, Downing Street previously said.
It comes as footage from visitors and residents alike has emerged from different parts of the city, revealing the true extent of the major problem, as more recently terrified clean-up workers were chased off by rats suddenly appearing from bin bags.
A rubbish mountain was several feet wide and 12 feet deep at some areas at Tyseley Community Centre
Terrified clean-up workers have been filmed being chased off by rats suddenly appearing from the bin bags they were supposed to be taking away in Birmingham.
The CCTV footage shows four workers running out of the compound after the rats jumped out from the mound of rubbish on the floor.
Leader of the Council Cllr John Cotton said: ‘Our work to clear the backlog is gathering pace and we will continue collecting waste over the weekend.
‘I fully appreciate that there is still more to do, and I share the frustration of people across the city, but now that we are getting our crews out on time every day, we are starting to see a difference and I want to thank our amazing crews for their hard work over the last week.
‘I also want to thank every citizen, community group and organisation that is helping with the clear-up. People are helping in neighbourhoods right across the city and their support is helping to clear our streets.’
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson: ‘This escalation of industrial action will mean greater disruption to residents – despite the fair and reasonable offer that the council made to Unite the Union.
‘To the small number of workers whose wages are impacted ongoing by the changes to the service (of whom there are now only 40) we have already offered alternatives, including highly valuable LGV Driver Training for career progression and pay, and other roles in the council equivalent to their former roles. No worker will lose the sums Unite are claiming.
‘Residents of Birmingham want and deserve a better waste collection service and the restructure that Unite is opposing is part of the much-needed transformation of the service.
‘Our door is still open, and we would encourage Unite to come back to the table.
‘We thank residents for their continued understanding and patience so far and will continue to provide up-to-date information about our plans during the industrial action.’
Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government said:
‘The people of Birmingham are our first priority – this dispute is causing misery and disruption to residents and the backlog must be dealt with quickly to address public health risks.
‘My department is working with Birmingham City Council to support its response to accelerate clearing the backlog and rapidly improve the situation on the ground. Neighbouring authorities are providing additional vehicles and crews, and we are providing logistical support.
‘I have pressed both sides to negotiate at pace to urgently find a resolution. There is now a better offer on the table and I would urge Unite to suspend the action and accept the improved deal so we achieve fairness for both workers and residents of this city.’
MailOnline has approached Unite the Union for comment.
