Birmingham could call on Black Country councils to help as major incident declared over bin strike
Birmingham City Council has pledged extra help for residents in its tower blocks after declaring a ‘major incident’ in the city as 17K tonnes of uncollected waste litter streets because of the bin strike.
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Since the industrial action started in January, residents have been forced to endure rats in the streets; smells lingering over neighbourhoods and an estimated 17,000 tonnes of uncollected waste.
The strike was triggered by a dispute between Birmingham City Council and the Unite union over plans to scrap a role within the waste service, with the disagreement splitting opinion among Brummies and sparking calls for resignations.
As concerns over risks to public health continue to escalate, the council has declared a major incident to address the impact of the industrial action.
It said it had a contingency plan using its “limited resources” to collect from all properties in the city once a week – but claimed actions on the picket line at bins depots had prevented it from doing this.
As part of its ‘contingency arrangements’, it said it was increasing caretaking capacity for council tower blocks to avoid the “build-up of refuse and improve fire safety”.
It is also looking to increase the opening hours of its tips for a second time to increase capacity.
