We're going to end our live coverage for today, thanks for joining us.

Talks to end the strike have finished for the day without a deal and are set to continue tomorrow.

Our reporters Josh Sandiford, Anna Whittaker, David Lumb, Sarah Julian and Rob Mayor have been reporting from the streets of Birmingham through the day.

Here's what they found:

• Bin bags have continued to pile up in many areas and attract rats and other vermin
• It was difficult to tell fly-tipping from residents' rubbish in many cases
• Refuse collectors told us they were also eager for a deal
• Mobile collection sites in Erdington and Billesley have again proven popular
• Emergency bin crews have been more effective than last week at getting out to pick up bins

Image source, PA Media

Caroline Gall
BBC News

Lichfield District Council has announced it will provide support to help clear the piles of rubbish in nearby Birmingham.

“Our crews and vehicles are being deployed - not to carry out routine bin collections, but to help clear the mountains of uncollected waste that have built up on the streets of Birmingham," leader Doug Pullen said.

"The city is currently seeing rubbish accumulate at a staggering rate of around 1,000 tonnes each week.”

The support is being provided at a commercial rate, meaning Lichfield residents will not bear any cost for the assistance being given, he added.

He said the council was "proud to be a good neighbour", but its first duty was to Lichfield.

"I can reassure residents that our routine services will remain unaffected and our teams will continue to deliver the high standards people rightly expect," he said.

The first collections will begin on Wednesday.

Caroline Gall
BBC News

Here's a look at the day in photos.

Local residents have been delivering their rubbish to mobile collection vehicles in Erdington and Billesley as the strike continues.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Asked if it could be another few weeks before a solution is found, Unite regional officer Zoe Mayou said she hoped not, but it would depend on how often the two parties could meet.

“We’re trying to all work as quick as we can. Unfortunately things don’t always progress, for various reasons, as quick as anyone would like,” she said.

“We are trying to work on this [the dispute]. We had a meeting today and we do want to resolve this."

Sadia Khan and her fellow Friends of Spark Green Park are just the sort of volunteers Ayoub Khan could have been talking about in the Commons.

She told us last week that her team had found it hard to clear an increase in rubbish dumped in the park, including builders' waste.

"It's so hard for our littler pickers to remove rubble and brick. It is getting a lot more of a nuisance. There's rats you can see in broad daylight," she said.

Ms Khan added that the volume of rubbish was also an issue for many businesses across the city, including food outlets in the Balti Triangle, and a concern for both public health and residents' mental health.

"It's depressing, it shouldn't be the norm. Children shouldn't have to wade through it on their way to school," she said.

Image source, UK Parliament

A Birmingham MP has repeated his suggestion for the government to deploy the Army to help clear up the city’s streets.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Ayoub Khan, independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, asked whether the Army could be used to “assist the local charities and organisations” that were trying to clear some of the rubbish.

Local government minister Jim McMahon said in response that the government wanted a “sustainable deal that can hold”, including one that did not “stray into potentially compromising the equal pay settlement”.

“Bearing in mind, that's already £1bn of cost to the local authority,” he added.

Caroline Gall
BBC News

Image source, Harry Clayton

Birmingham student Harry Clayton shares a house with seven others and said their home now has an ant infestation due to rubbish not being collected.

“People respond to the news saying residents can sort their own rubbish out, and that we just don't care, but we live in a student house of eight people, with no cars and no parents who live locally," the 22-year-old told BBC News.

“Taking our own litter, which would need to be done multiple times a week, is simply not possible for us, and with the bin men now not working, it has left us no other choice than to leave litter outside, and let ant infestations bear down on our home due to the litter."

Unite regional officer Zoe Mayou said this afternoon's meeting with the council, which lasted a couple of hours, was "productive".

She told the BBC: “Things are moving forward. Obviously these things take time and we have arranged a further meeting tomorrow.”

Ms Mayou said both Unite and the council have agreed not to go into the details of what they were talking about publicly.

“All I can say is we both want an end to this dispute," she added.

"We both want to come together and it really is just looking at how we can do that mutually, and what the timescales are around that.”

Anna Whittaker
Reporting from Billesley

Maksood Altaf packed his rubbish into his family car, including the wheelie bin, before he went to the mobile tip in Billesley.

“I’ve padded out the car with cardboard so nothing leaks out," he said.

“It’s terrible. I’ve seen dead rats outside my house since the rubbish hasn’t been collected.”

Asked about residents’ hopes that there could be a temporary halt to the strike action, Unite regional officer Zoe Mayou said “not for now”.

She said it might be considered if the council offered the striking workers “something more concrete” but it had not been discussed.

“I’m sure the people of Birmingham would love that. If we can get something and our members agree to do that, then we will,” she added

“Unfortunately, we’re not in that position at the moment.”

Rob Mayor
Political reporter, Birmingham

Image source, PA Media

Birmingham City Council has high hopes of what it can achieve despite the strike, now that its trucks can leave depots without delay.

At the depot in Tyseley for example, it was taking a couple of hours for bin wagons to reach the end of the road as they were delayed by striking workers.

This morning I saw half a dozen leave unimpeded before 06:30.

The council says it had more than 20 bin lorries out on Saturday and on Sunday, and I’ve seen street cleaning teams reassigned to bin trucks this morning, tackling some of the worst spots in the Alum Rock area.

But with 17,000 tonnes of rubbish to clear, it’s going to take some time.

BBC Midlands Today reporter David Lumb has been in Billesley, Birmingham, speaking to residents using a temporary waste collection site.

One person told him the rubbish makes the city look like a "Third World country", while another said she faced the prospect of disposing of her bin bags after a long 12-hour shift at work.

You can watch what residents had to say in this short video clip:

Image source, PA Media

Oliver Staunton in our last post isn't the only local resident hoping for a long-term solution.

That's because strikes by bin workers in 2017 were equally as disruptive.

That seven-week dispute was over restructuring plans.

It ended with an agreement from the council that certain posts would not be made redundant and union officials in return recommended staff considered accepting rota changes.

There was also a dispute in 2019 when Unite claimed members of the GMB union were given larger "conciliatory payments" at the resolution of the 2017 dispute.

The GMB union said this was because its members did not take part in the strike and the extra payments were because they had been left out of conciliatory talks.

That dispute ended the following month when a financial settlement was agreed to satisfy Unite members.

Josh Sandiford
BBC News, West Midlands

Oliver Staunton from Erdington, like many of us, are wondering how this strike can be resolved.

Speaking before news of the latest collapse in talks, he said: "I can understand why the council are saying they want to standardise the rates of payment and I can understand why the workers wouldn't want to accept that, so it seems like a deadlock."

Mr Staunton says he's hoping for a "long-term solution" to prevent another strike taking place a few years down the line.

Caroline Gall
BBC News, West Midlands

The strike began on 11 March, but how close, or not, are the council and union Unite to reaching an agreement?

Talks between the two parties have ended again today with no deal, after also breaking down last week.

There have, however, been offers on the table, including about offering workers alternative roles.

All affected staff have been offered other jobs at the same pay, the council said, adding that almost three-quarters of them had either taken up the offer, or decided to take voluntary redundancy.

Up to 41 workers have declined any offer, and 35 who opted for driver training "have also told us via a letter from Unite that they are working under protest", the council said.

The next round of talks will begin tomorrow afternoon, this time at the city council's offices.

A formal period of consultation by the council as it looks to make compulsory redundancies for those who have declined deals began on 31 March.

The union has said it hopes the council will have a change of heart over the potential redundancies and added that by threatening redundancies it sent a message it was not serious about resolving the dispute.

Today's talks between Birmingham City Council and the Unite union have ended without agreement.

Unite said the talks were "productive" but there was "a way to go".

Negotiations are due to resume on Tuesday.

Phil Mackie
BBC News Midlands correspondent

Daniel Taylor has worked on the bin lorries for 25 years.

He told me he faces losing £6,000 a year if he’s downgraded, and has five kids to support.

"It's a lot of money to lose. We're living in a financial crisis, a cost of living crisis. There's rent, phone bills, car fuel, insurance to pay," he said.

He explained how he was at the top of his band as a loader, but under the new structure would be dropped to a Grade 2 role. Instead he has been offered a role as a driver, but he has to pass a test first.

"The council says it wants to modernise the service. You don't modernise the services by cutting people's wages. Especially when there is a cost-of-living crisis," he said.

The strikers want to get back to work, he added, and clear the streets.

"We want a breakthrough. We don't want to be out here. We want to be out there doing our jobs. We enjoy our jobs.

"It's not a good look for Birmingham at all. There is mess everywhere."

Aerial footage shows a mile-long line of traffic as residents in a part of Birmingham queued to use a mobile waste collection site.

Similar sites have proven to be a lifeline for many people since an all-out strike by bin workers began on 11 March.

This short video that we've just seen, but which was filmed on Friday, shows cars bumper-to-bumper in Bartley Green.

Footage shot by Joe Barrett

Kathryn Stanczyszyn
BBC Radio WM presenter in Washwood Heath

Kamran Khursheed lives in the Washwood Heath area of Birmingham and says bin bags have been piling up on the streets around him for more than six weeks.

He's calling for something to be "done about it now" and says the issue is just getting worse, particularly around Fernbank Road.

“The sight, the stench, the mess – it’s got to end. It’s embarrassing as well," he adds.

"We’re England, the world is seeing this and it’s just not right at all."

Alex McIntyre
BBC News, West Midlands

Image source, PA Media

The all-out bin workers strike in Birmingham began in March but the dispute was going on for months before that.

6 January: Bin workers who are members of the Unite union walk out in what was originally meant to be the first of 12 days of strike action taking place over four months.

3 February: Unite announces an intensification of industrial action, with 12 days of strikes scheduled for February.

26 February: The union announces a further escalation

11 March: An all-out strike begins as more than 350 refuse workers take indefinite industrial action.

27 March: Talks between the city council and Unite break down. The former threatens compulsory redundancies for those who have “declined all offers on the table”.

31 March: The council declares a major incident in response to concerns of risks to public health and damage to the environment. It claims picket lines blocking depots have prevented refuse vehicles from getting out, leading to about 17,000 tonnes of rubbish not being collected.

2 April: The bin strike is raised during Prime Minister’s Questions and Sir Keir Starmer says the government will put in whatever support the council needs.

3 April: Unite general secretary Sharon Graham writes to deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and accuses ministers of sitting on their hands.

5 April: Rayner meets council leaders to discuss ways of clearing the streets.