Bin trucks 'delayed' at depots by industrial action

Refuse trucks have been "delayed" in Birmingham because of strike action in the ongoing bin workers' dispute, says the local authority.

Birmingham City Council posted on social media that its vehicles had been held up at some depots.

The dispute, which saw all-out action begin on 11 March after earlier on-and-off walkouts, will enter mediation talks between the authority and the union, Unite, at conciliation service Acas next week, starting on 1 May.

After residents were hit by further collection delays on Friday, the BBC approached both the council and Unite for comment.

On X, the council wrote: "As of 8.30am there are delays with our waste wagons leaving some of the depots due to industrial action by Unite the Union.

"We apologise for the current situation. Please leave bins at the edge of your property (or collection point) we'll collect asap."

It comes after it was confirmed that Craig Cooper, the council's strategic director of city operations - who previously had described it as "disappointing" that an agreement had not been reached with Unite - will leave his role in June.

The local authority announced his departure on Friday, adding that he will continue in the role until his departure, when Richard Brooks will step in for an interim period while his full-time replacement is recruited.

The council declared a major incident in March as a backlog of waste accumulated in the city with bin bags stacked several feet high.

Help came from expert army planners and disaster relief volunteers as the council tackled the rubbish heaps, and Jim McMahon, local government minister, said regular collections had been removed after at least 26,000 tonnes of waste were cleared from the streets.

However, residents in Kitchener Road, Selly Park, have told the Local Democracy Reporting Service how the bin bags pile up again soon after they are cleared.

People living there described their relief after a huge mountain of waste on a street corner was cleared two weeks ago, only to be faced with two separate heaps of rubbish by Thursday this week.

One resident said: "It's got to the stage where we're used to it now. We've just got to wait for it to be cleared and hope the dispute gets resolved soon."

Others reported seeing rats at night and foxes rummaging through rubbish and tearing bags apart.

Birmingham City Council has said a "fair and reasonable offer" has been made and "not a single worker needs to lose a penny".

Unite has said a deal could be within "touching distance" ahead of talks at Acas next week.

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