Jamie Whitehead
BBC News

It's Monday lunchtime and the scene in some areas of Birmingham today is similar to what it has been since the middle of March - there's rubbish everywhere.

Although we are yet to hear from anyone official yet today, Birmingham City Council declared the amount of rubbish on the streets a major incident last week and we are expecting another round of talks between the council and the Unite union - who are representing striking refuse workers - to happen later today.

As a reminder, the dispute centres around the council's decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles, which the union says affects around 170 workers who would lost around £8,000 of pay as a result. The authority says claims that affected staff would lose an average of £8,000 per year were incorrect.

Throughout the morning and into the early hours of this afternoon, our colleagues at BBC Radio WM are broadcasting from the streets of Birmingham to hear how the strike has been affecting you and how you are getting rid of your rubbish.

If you're in Birmingham, you can let us know how the strike is affecting you via Your Voice, Your BBC News.

Anna Whittaker
Reporting from Billesley

Kevin Johnson says he has lived in the Billesley area of Birmingham for 78 years and "has never seen anything like this".

He also told me he has sympathy with the striking bin workers and "can’t believe the strike has gone on this long".

Mr Johnson is one of many people to use the mobile collection service there this morning and added: “I’ve done two trips this morning and I could do more but the traffic is too bad.

"It took me 20 minutes to get down this road."

For context, in 2017 a similar strike took seven weeks to resolve, so we are still a couple of weeks off that yet.

Andy Giddings
BBC News, West Midlands

Throughout this strike, Birmingham City Council has been telling people to continue putting out their household waste bins on collection day.

It says it will do its best to empty them on the same day or soon after, using bin collectors who are not taking part in the strike action.

But other collections have been suspended while the strike is on.

This morning, the authority said it got all of its bin lorries out and it is also continuing to operate its mobile collection points - bin lorries which it sends out into communities for people to bring their waste to.

Image source, Birmingham City Council

The council has also extended the opening times at its tips, with Tyseley and Castle Bromwich now open between 07:00 and 21:00 BST and Kings Norton between 10:00 and 22:00.

They are all open from 08:00 to 18:00 at weekends.

There is more advice on rubbish collections on the Birmingham City Council website, external.

Anna Whittaker
Reporting from Billesley

Gulamabbas Abdulrasul got a taxi to the mobile tip this morning with 20 bin bags - which he said cost him £25 for two trips.

He said: “Our bins haven’t been collected for four weeks. We can’t get a skip booking anywhere. This is a disgrace."

He also said he was "fed up" and believes he is due a council tax refund.

Rob Mayor
Political reporter, West Midlands

Drinks cans, milk bottles, a roll of carpet, coffee cups and a sofa are just some of the things I can see in the giant pile of rubbish opposite Parkfield Community Primary School in Alum Rock.

Judging by the smell, there's plenty of food in there as well.

We’ve just seen the slightly comical sight of a council litter picker using a grabber round another rubbish mountain.

It would take forever to clear all of this by hand.

Andy Giddings
BBC News, West Midlands

Bin workers who are members of the Unite union in Birmingham began their indefinite strike action on 11 March.

It was called because of a dispute with Birmingham City Council over a council decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles from some workers.

You can find out more on the reasons behind the dispute here.

Here's a summary of the two sides of the argument:

What does Unite say?

• The trade union has claimed ending the WRCO role hit about 150 workers with pay cuts of up to £8,000
• The union’s national lead officer Onay Kasab previously said the city council could end the dispute "by agreeing to pay a decent rate of pay"
• It argues the workers have accepted other recent cuts, and that the service and staff are already under pressure

What about the council?

• It disputes Unite’s figures, and says just 17 staff could lose the maximum amount of just over £6,000
• A town hall spokesperson said their door was "still open" for Unite to "come back to the table"
• It says the current structure was agreed after 2017 bin strikes but it needs to save money after effectively declaring itself bankrupt in 2023

Basmin Khan from the Small Heath Community Forum has been speaking to us this morning, and it sounds like she's had enough.

She said: "It should never have got this far, we really do need a resolution.

"At the moment things don't look very good on the table and we're just hoping that the city council will take a look at the situation again and realise it's untenable."

Looking at the rubbish in her area, she said: "I think we'll need a lot of trucks to clear all this rubbish and it'll take a lot of time.

"The fly-tippers are having a field day, they are coming out dumping their furniture, I've seen commercial vans dumping rubbish."

Last Monday, Birmingham City Council declared a major incident over the ongoing bin strike, which has left tonnes of waste on the streets.

It means the council can increase its street cleaning operation and fly-tipping removal, by bringing in an extra 35 vehicles and crews.

Leader John Cotton said it was "regrettable" the council had to take this step, but added: "We cannot tolerate a situation that is causing harm and distress to communities across Birmingham.

"I respect the right to strike and protest, however actions on the picket line must be lawful and sadly the behaviour of some now means we are seeing a significant impact on residents and the city's environment.

"Unless we declare a major incident and deploy the waste service's contingency plan, then we would be unable to clear the backlog of waste on the streets."

Anna Whittaker
Reporting from Billesley

Most people here have said they haven't had a proper collection in five weeks now, so people are turning up with car loads of of rubbish.

One lady had put the whole black wheelie bin in the back of her car and was trying to squeeze it out.

People are really frustrated - they don't want to spend their Monday morning before work and the school run coming to a mobile tip.

Elizabeth Glinka
Political Editor, BBC Midlands

What shifted the dial? Is it the city’s Labour MPs, all too aware of their constituents' growing anger, lobbying ministers behind closed doors? Private pleas from the council leader or the leaked letter from Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham (pictured), accusing the government of “sitting on its hands”?

Perhaps some of these things, perhaps all, but since the visit of local government Minister Jim McMahon on Thursday it does feel like politically at least something has shifted.

Friday brought a new tougher approach from the police. All 90 of the authority’s working bin wagons crewed by agency and non-striking staff made it out of their depots, and there were further collections over the weekend too.

This dispute is not over, but the council appears to have moved onto the front foot. How will Unite the Union now respond?

Adam Pinder-Smith
BBC Radio WM, Washwood Heath

In Washwood Heath, a pile of bin bags caught fire on Friday and Zabir, who lives nearby said: "It just went up in seconds, before you know it the neighbour's fence caught on fire."

He has lived on Fernbank Road, where the fire happened, for 13 years and told us it was "just shocking" and he feels it's time the dispute was resolved.

He says he hasn't got any sympathy with the striking bin workers or the council and looking at the piles of rubbish added: "It's quite upsetting having to view this in the mornings and before you go to bed."

Sarah Julian
Presenter, BBC Radio WM

We met Dee this morning as she was walking her daughter to school, picking her way around the bags of rubbish.

There were bin collectors out this morning clearing some of it away and she said: "It's a light at the end of the tunnel seeing the bin men coming out this morning."

She also said: "It just tells us how important the bin men are to us because we can see the destruction it can cause if it stops."

Rebecca Woods
BBC News

People in Kings Heath rejoiced as a huge pile of bin bags was removed from Brandwood Road at the weekend.

Today, however, someone has dumped a bed in almost exactly the same place.

People in the area find it frustrating having to "run to stand still" in the race against fly-tippers.

Anna Whittaker
Reporting from Billesley

We've got three bin lorries here in Billesley this morning and the mobile collection site opened early because there are so many people with their rubbish.

There are queues of people here in their cars, but I got here just after seven and saw people with vans coming here to fly tip things like clothing, even a rocking horse I've seen on that pile.

The council has made it clear these mobile collection points are not for people with van-loads of waste, a point reiterated by the bin men, but they told us drivers just shrug and drive off.

It is calm here this morning and everything's working well, but it's busy and there's a lot of frustration among the residents and the workers.

Tim Page
BBC News, West Midlands

This page is just part of the BBC's live coverage of the bin strike in Birmingham today.

BBC Radio WM is broadcasting live across the city with Sarah Julian and Kath Stanczyszyn, and the BBC News at Six and News at Ten plan to report extensively from Birmingham this evening.

There will also be continuing coverage on the dispute from Midlands Today.

Sarah Julian
BBC Radio WM presenter in Bordesley Green

We've been speaking to Margaret in Bordesley Green this morning and she is worried about the effect the strike is having on the image of her area.

She was born in Small Heath and said when she moved to Bordesley Green it was seen as "the ideal village up the road".

But with rubbish now piled up on the streets, she said: "I'm ashamed - people come and they say you can't live in this, but I do and I'm too old to move now."

Image source, PA Media

People in Birmingham are being told to continue putting household waste bins out on collection day during the strike.

The city council said it would attempt to empty those grey bins on the usual day, but if it was unable to, residents should leave the bins out and they would be emptied as soon as possible.

Collections of recycled waste, bulky waste, green waste and kerbside collections have been suspended.

The local authority has asked people to take recycling to the nearest household recycling centre and for any excess household waste to be bagged up and placed beside their grey wheelie bin.

It asked people to bag it up in a way that "reduces the risk of pests getting access".

The council said people using the assisted collection service for those who have difficulty moving their bins and the clinical waste collection service would be treated as a priority.

There is more advice on the city council website, external.

Birmingham City Council says the changes being made to waste collection are "part of the much-needed transformation of the service".

It says the current structure was agreed following the 2017 bin strikes, and it needs to save money after effectively declaring itself bankrupt in 2023.

The council has said the planned changes were a "crucial part of our need to become financially sustainable".

The council is also saying the impact of the changes is far smaller than Unite has claimed and council leader John Cotton has said: "Everybody is in a position where they wouldn't need to lose pay or they could have an alternative role or take voluntary redundancy."

The authority said 80% of the workforce had accepted alternative offers, including promotion to driver roles, voluntary redundancy or moving to street cleaning teams, but 41 workers had not come forward to accept an alternative.

It said the maximum amount anyone would lose if they did not accept an alternative post would be £6,000 and only 17 of those 41 workers could lose as much as that.

Anna Whittaker
Political reporter, West Midlands

Mandy Cooper says she hasn’t had a bin collection for five weeks and the situation is “crazy”.

“My arms are aching, I’ve done about six loads with the neighbour’s rubbish as well. It was piled up, we must’ve had about 30 black bags.

“It’s quite well organised here. I live opposite Billesley Common where there are foxes and rats so I don’t want all the animals ripping the bags open.”

Sarah Portlock
BBC News, Birmingham

This is the scene in Brookfield Road, Hockley - bin bags piled almost as tall as the hedge (about 5ft or 1.5m) and starting to smell a bit.

Residents are having to walk in the road as they can't get down the path, with at least one person having to take her mobility scooter into the road.

Cats, foxes and gulls all have a go at tearing the bags open on normal bin days, never mind when the rubbish piles up.

People living here don't have wheelie bins and the council tells them to leave their rubbish in the street, just by the car parks, or it won't be collected. Not everybody here has a car so they can't take their rubbish to the tip.

Also, round the corner is some green space and the canal where fly-tipping regularly takes place. People seem to be dumping unusual objects.