Birmingham bins dispute branded ‘horrible situation’
“Buck passing” between council departments which resulted in bins not being returned to a block of flats has been branded “deeply frustrating”.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found fault with Birmingham City Council and said the problem was due to a “squabble” between two sections of the authority.
A resident last year complained bins had not been returned to the building’s collection point since the summer of 2020 – and instead were left blocking the footpath and a bus stop.
The resident had struggled to return the bins to the storage area, including in the ice and snow – while the council initially refused to address the situation, the watchdog said in November.
It said the problem was due to a disagreement between the council’s housing and waste departments about who was responsible.
The council was reprimanded by the watchdog, with ombudsman Michael King stating £150 should be paid to the resident as compensation.
The case has now been picked up the city council’s audit committee and members grilled the city’s assistant director of street scene Darren Share about what had happened.
The meeting heard the block of flats at the centre of the case is situated in Staple Lodge Road, West Heath.
Committee chair Councillor Fred Grindrod said: “This is not the service at all that we wish to give to the residents of the city.
“It is deeply frustrating when we as councillors approach a service expecting something to be dealt with and to be told it is not their issue and there is no effort whatsoever to pass it on to the other directorate.
“And indeed when problems like this emerge, it must be so much more frustrating for residents who are living very much in the middle of a failure of service.”
Councillor Marje Bridle said: “Departments have for such a long time been silos that have worked completely separately and have almost professional egos that really need destroying.
“Because if we are going to be an efficient, modern, effective council then this is a change that needs to happen.”
Councillor Sir Albert Bore asked for an “unequivocal” assurance the situation had been resolved – and Mr Share, who has responsibility for waste management, said it had been.
Mr Share said: “Historically there was a mixture of housing colleagues putting bins back and waste management teams putting bins back and that’s where the confusion got.
“No excuses – our team should have been putting the bins back. That’s now been in place.
“We are monitoring the situation on a regular basis at Staple Lodge Road to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Mr Share said there are regular meetings “at all different levels across the service” to make sure there is a “much more joined up service between waste and housing”.
He added: “Horrible situation – completely wrong. I can’t defend the poor service that everybody got. We have learned from it and we have now actions in place to prevent this happening again.
“There has been a lot of buck passing in the past about who deals with what and ownership hasn’t been at the foremost.
“That has started to change and is definitely changing and anything to do with waste now comes through us in street scene and we will deal with it.
“If that means the external services are spoken to, we will speak to them, we will get the work done and we will get back to the residents.”
The committee moved to write to chief executive Deborah Cadman to ask how a move towards “joined-up working” will be achieved.
