Residents living surrounded by filth amid industrial action by refuse workers have claimed fly tippers are dumping black sacks full of rubbish near their homes, as tempers boil.
Birmingham City Council last week declared a major incident to address the impact of the ongoing strikes, with contingency plans brought in to address the issue. However, huge piles of uncollected rubbish continue to sit on the city’s streets and locals have reported seeing giant rats the size of cats frolicking in the waste. Amid the ongoing nightmare, some neighbours are claiming people are fly tipping their rubbish, making matters even worse.
Paddy, 41, told Birminghamlive: “I’ve come out and rowed with people taking bags out of their vans and dumping it, they are not from around here. My room is downstairs at the corner.
“The rats are massive, I’ve got mouse droppings all over the window sill. I’ve not long had a sofa and after a month the rats chewed through it.
“The smell is really bad. I’ve complained to the council.”
Mum-of-four Zaida Parveen, 44, added: “People are dumping on the corners and it’s not us doing it. We’ve seen rats, now we are having to clean it so we can get into the grove.
“When we first came in 2016, it was nice and clean – we had a bouncing castle outside and birthday parties for children as we don’t have back gardens. Now we can’t let them out because of the rubbish. Since the bin strike, it’s been building up.”
The council previously said there are usually more than 500,000 collections per week and the strike contingency can handle 360,000. However, a blockade of depots means collections are far below.
The authority said in an update on Facebook : “Residents, if you see one of our waste trucks drive down your street they are there to clear the current build-up of waste. Please don’t follow the bin trucks, there is a risk to your health and safety
“Put your rubbish in or next to your wheelie bin outside your property or at your usual collection point.”
Announcing a major incident last week, the council added: “The council has a contingency plan using our limited resources to collect from all properties in the city once a week, but actions on the picket line have prevented us from doing this. The daily blocking of our depots by pickets has meant that we cannot get our vehicles out to collect waste from residents. Often, we can only get one vehicle out per hour.
“This has meant to date around 17,000 tonnes of waste remains uncollected across the city. This has led to rising concerns of risks to public health and damage to our environment.”
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