Multiple bin collections missed - city taxpayers

Some bins were full on Welsh House Farm Road

Residents in several areas of Birmingham have complained the city council has missed multiple bin collections.

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

Whole streets have been missed according to one taxpayer, who said general and recycling waste alike was not being picked up.

Labour-run Birmingham City Council said new lorries would be delivered this month, which would "go a long way to helping improve the service".

Birmingham residents have been paying a council tax increase as the authority seeks to balance budgets, with a black hole of hundreds of millions of pounds in its finances seeing it enter effective bankruptcy.

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

One resident, Jeremy, from Edgbaston, said he normally had weekly general waste collections and recycling taken away every fortnight, but on Monday 17 June recycling was not picked up.

A week later, general waste was not removed either, he stated, adding: "Now, in the 27-degree heat, the black bag stuff is still here with us."

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

"You can phone a robotic voice and complain that your house has been missed, but the truth is that whole streets round here have been missed."

It has been claimed there has been mixed success in Quinton

A woman who lives in Quinton said one recycling week had been missed where she lived, "so it's been [a] fortnight", yet some houses in the area had had collections.

Another resident, commenting about Harborne on social media platform X, said: "What's needed is full refunds for council tax payers because the waste services simply don't work.

"It's often citizens who are sharing photos of failed wheelie bins not being emptied.

"Social housing tenants suffer the most," they claimed.

People in Edgbaston said there had been problems in their area of the city too

Failure had "become the norm", the Conservative group on the council said.

It added there were "places where waste has been missed for a month".

The leader of the Tory block, Robert Alden, stated missed bin collections were becoming a serious issue.

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

He added: "These changes have highlighted issues we were aware of such as an ageing fleet.

"New lorries have been hired and will be delivered this month which will go a long way to helping improve the service, especially the reliability of the refuse collection vehicles."

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

He added: "We do apologise to residents who are affected during this transitional phase."