Birmingham’s Bin Strikes are being hijacked by fly-tippers

4 April 2025, 14:36

By George Icke

Fly tipping is one of the greatest blights in our society, with some people thinking it’s acceptable to dump their rubbish anywhere and everywhere.

With the ongoing bin strike in Birmingham continuing to rumble on, it's created the perfect mask for people to throw whatever they want out on the streets.

For context, Birmingham City Council's refuse workers have gone out on strike over pay and conditions. The council wants to scrap one of the roles which, according to The Unite Union, would see some workers lose out on £8,000 of pay each year.

There have been no regular bin collections in the city since the 11th of March when all-out strike action began, and workers on the picket line began to stop lorries leaving the depot.

My greatest frustration during this industrial action is a group of chancers using this horrendous situation, with mounting rubbish on street corners, to dump old white goods like fridges and freezers in the hope it'll be cleaned up for them. It's a ludicrous situation. When was the last time you put your bin out before the strike and left a chest freezer alongside it?

Andy Street, the former Mayor of the West Midlands, told Nick Ferrari on LBC that the state of the city is causing huge reputational damage. That's a fact that can't be denied. Pictures of the embarrassing state of Birmingham's streets are making news worldwide. A city once famed for its car production and being the home of Cadbury's is now synonymous with rotting piles of rubbish and 'rats the size of cats'.

People became so fed up with queueing at one household waste site that they just began to build a mountain of rubbish. A mountain so big that a JCB digger had to be brought in to clean it up overnight. That can't be acceptable.

It gets worse still, though. Not only are some opportunists chucking their old cookers or tumble dryers onto the street. It's reported that scammers are going door to door, preying on people exhausted by being surrounded by rubbish, and taking money to clear rubbish only to dump it in surrounding areas, including Wolverhampton and Staffordshire.

Having been on the frontline of the Birmingham Bin Strikes for LBC over the last 24 days, I really can't see where this nightmare will go next—rubbish piles next to schools, nurseries, and doctors' surgeries. We're beyond asking if this is a public health emergency - it blatantly is when I'm standing looking at rats feasting on a baby's dirty nappy.

Fresh talks will take place on Monday afternoon between Birmingham City Council and Unite. For people living here, walking through disgraceful litter-covered streets, an end can't come soon enough.

________________

George Icke is a reporter for LBC & LBC News.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email views@lbc.co.uk