Stormy meeting sees motion for Sandwell residents to be compensated for bin strikes overthrown

A stormy special meeting of the full council on Tuesday night considered a proposal from Conservative councillors David Fisher and William Gill for a refund scheme for residents of the borough affected by the strike and a penalty clause for the waste collection providers for failing to provide a basic service.

The four-week long refuse strike - due to a dispute between Serco and the GMB union - brought protests outside Sandwell Council House, with West Bromwich MP Shaun Bailey joining residents waving placards. But it was brought to an end at the end of last month when an agreement between the two sides was reached.

Councillor Fisher accused the trade union of 'bully boy tactics' during the dispute to stop refuse workers going in and accused Serco of producing poor value for the service provided to residents.

He said: "It seems like a summer of misery is coming to an end for residents now but Sandwell's Labour councillors shouldn't have let it get to the stage where bins were not collected for four weeks and recycling for five.

"They buried their heads in the sand and put their paymasters before the people whilst the union backed them. The residents deserve compensation in terms of their council tax and penalty clause should be applied on a contract worth £115 million over the terms of its lifetime to the company which presided over a break in its service to the residents."

But councillor for Smethwick ward, Luke Davies said the amount of the council tax paid for by residents for waste services amounted to £41 per year or 79 pence per week and the cost of administration in refunding them all would be prohibitive.

Council leader Kerrie Carmichael said workers had been forced to go on strike due to the rise in the cost of living and the fact their wages were not going up with the rate of inflation.

She said: "It is due to 12 years of Conservative rule that the people of the borough are in this position and not just refuse workers but nurses, teachers and others. We are sorry people suffered this disruption to the service but there was a reason for the strikes, they weren't taken lightly and it was good that the matter was resolved in a relatively short space of time."

The motion was overwhelmingly voted down by 50 votes to 10.