Birmingham City Council declares major incident over bin strike-OxBig News Network

A major incident has been declared by Birmingham City Council over the ongoing bin strike, which has left 17,000 tonnes of waste on the streets.

Council leader John Cotton said the action had been taken in response to rising concerns about public health as the authority struggles to clear the rubbish, which has led to the issue being raised in Parliament.

The declaration means the authority can increase its street cleaning operation and fly-tipping removal, with an extra 35 vehicles and crews around the city.

Members of Unite have been on all-out strike since 11 March in a row of pay, which the union says will leave some workers £8,000 worse off.

As the strike was being raised in the House of Commons, the government confirmed it was now “monitoring the situation closely”.

Mr Cotton said a lot of the difficulty in clearing the waste in the streets had been caused by staff on picket lines who, he said, were preventing vehicles from getting out of depot.

He said it was “regrettable” the council had to take this step.

“[But] we cannot tolerate a situation that is causing harm and distress to communities across Birmingham,” he said.

“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 or improve the frequency of collections.”

Declaring the major incident also allows the council to “work with partners to better manage the risks the city is facing”, which could include increased sharing of data.

Further support from neighbouring councils and the government could also be explored, the authority said.