Anger as rubbish piles up after collections missed
OPPOSITION councillors condemned Labour-controlled Birmingham City Council after residents in some areas faced waits of over a month for bin collections.
The council announced changes to its usual collection schedule over the festive period – with some households not getting a recycling collection for four weeks.
Catch-up crews had to be drafted in to cover missed bins after the council had to drop rounds due to the impact of Omicron.
It comes after the council was previously rapped for its performance on recycling and refuse collections.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman looked into 44 complaints about recycling and refuse collections between August 2020 and 2021 and upheld “over 95 per cent of these”.
Cllr Deirdre Alden (Con, Edgbaston), shadow cabinet member for street scene and parks, said: “The disappointment over missed collections over the Christmas period sadly isn’t anything new for residents.
“From January 2017 to November 2021 there have been over 500,000 missed bin collections in Birmingham – that simply is not good enough and shows how Labour can’t get control of a basic service that residents expect and pay good money for. We have been in the Covid-19 pandemic for nearly two years now and it is disappointing to see that the Labour administration is still incapable of putting in place proper plans to ensure the most basic of services like street cleaning and bin collections happen properly”.
Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Jon Hunt (Lib Dem, Perry Barr) said: “Clearly Covid is making life difficult for everyone, but the problem of large numbers of collection rounds being missed goes back to last summer. Labour promised to reform the collection service following the 2017 bin strike and have totally failed to do so.
“At times in recent months, the list of excuses and the level of complacency about this has been staggering. In my ward in Perry Barr, residents simply no longer know if their bins will be collected on time or not.”
Birmingham City Council said services were being affected as a result of staff Covid absence.
Cllr John O’Shea (Lab), cabinet member for street scene and parks, has previously said: “We always strive to strike the right balance between providing a service and ensuring our hardworking crews get time with their families over Christmas.”