More rubbish collections missed, Birmingham ratepayers complain

Residents in several areas of Birmingham have complained that the city council has failed to collect several bins.

People living in parts of Harborne, Quinton and Edgbaston said there had been problems for several weeks.

Entire streets were missed, according to one taxpayer, who said both general waste and recycling were not being picked up.

Labour-run Birmingham City Council said new trucks would be delivered this month, which would “go a long way towards improving the service”.

Birmingham residents are paying a rise in council tax as the authority struggles to balance budgets with a hundreds of millions of pounds hole in its finances, effectively bankrupt.

In 2017, bin strikes by waste collection workers in the city saw litter pile up on the streets, leading to public health concerns.

Resident Jeremy, from Edgbaston, said normally the weekly general waste collections and recycling were taken every fortnight, but on Monday June 17 the recycling was not taken.

A week later, the general waste hasn’t been removed either, he said, adding: “Now, in 27 degree heat, the black bag stuff is still here with us.”

He said: “So it’s not a problem here, where we have lovely gardens, but it would be in a smaller space.

“You can put on a robotic voice and complain that you missed the house, but the truth is that whole streets around here have been missed.”

A woman who lives in Quinton said she missed a week of recycling where she lived, “so it’s been (a) two weeks”, however some homes in the area had collections.

Another resident, commenting about Harborne on social media platform X, said: “Full refunds are needed for council tax payers as waste services are simply not working.

“It is often citizens who share photos of failed trash cans that are not emptied.

“Social housing tenants suffer the most,” they claim.

Failure had “become the norm”, the council’s Conservative group said.

He added that there are “places where waste has been missing for a month”.

Conservative Bloc leader Robert Alden said missed rubbish collections were becoming a serious problem.

Cabinet member for environment and transport Majid Mahmood said the council was “in the process of reviewing” its waste service and new collection rounds had started this month.

He added: “These changes highlighted issues we were aware of, such as an aging fleet.

“New trucks have been leased and will be delivered this month, which will go a long way towards improving the service, particularly the reliability of the refuse collection vehicles.”

Mr Mahmood said new management had been appointed and all areas of poor performance were being addressed.

He added: “We apologize to residents who are affected during this transition phase.”