With the end of the bank holiday period and onset of better weather Birmingham City Council has outlined how it is catching up on the backlog of waste collections caused by industrial action, poor weather and increased demand over the Christmas period.
Cllr Timothy Huxtable, Cabinet Member for Transportation and Regeneration, at Birmingham City Council, said:
”The City Council is making every possible effort to minimise the impact of the ongoing industrial action on residents and catch up with the waste backlog caused by the ‘triple whammy’ of extreme weather, increased waste volumes and strike action over the festive period.
“To this end over the bank holiday weekend, despite the regular workforce not working, we still managed to collect more than 500 tonnes of black bag waste per day from the streets of the city using our casual workforce.
“With the weather now improved and bank holidays at an end, we expect to continue to make significant progress from this point forward.
“We are aware there are still issues in some areas and using our casual workforce, currently up to 23 crews strong, we hope to catch-up the existing backlog by the end of this week.
”In the meantime the majority of scheduled collections should still be carried out on the allotted day by the regular crews, operating on a ‘work to rule’ basis.
“Where this does not take place we will be retaining the casual workforce to catch-up with any gaps in the service as soon as they become apparent, which from next week with the backlog cleared, should be within a day or two.
“We would like to apologise to the citizens of Birmingham for the inconvenience this situation, which is not of the Council’s making, is causing them. As demonstrated through the casual crews, Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) opening from 8am to 9pm every day and additional skip collections from high rise and low rise flats, we are doing everything in our power to try and effectively deal with the situation.”
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For more information contact Simon Houltby 0121 303 3503
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.My comment really is not about the delay in refuse collection, although an eye sore and very annoying. But my comment is about the state of the streets because of it.
It has been over 4 weeks since rubbish from the street I live in, has been collected, although I do understand the council’s difficulties. However this problem will not be sorted once all bags are collected, as the rubbish from split and torn bin bags has been strewn across the streets and rd’s. This litter, of course, will not be picked up by any refuse employee- permanent or casual, it will be left to rot and make our streets untidy and messy.
Having said that if people picked up and took control of their own litter and waste the streets wouldn’;t be so bad now anyway.
But a plea to the council – once the backlog of refuse is collected please clean the streets and remove nasty, wet, rotten litter and leaves !
Thank you