Still no ‘clear timeline’ for roll out of fortnightly bin collections as strikes continue

Due to the industrial action, the local authority was forced earlier this year to push back its transformation of the waste service.

The project has been described as a key part of the crisis-hit council’s recovery plan and will include moving from weekly to fortnightly collections of household rubbish.

Weekly food waste collections and a second recycling bin specifically for recycling paper and cardboard were also set to be introduced in phases across the city from April onwards.

Earlier today, the council’s cabinet member for environment, Coun Majid Mahmood, was unable to say when exactly the transformation, and the return of recycling collections, would now happen.

“We remain committed to the transformation of our waste service,” he told a neighbourhoods meeting. “It has not been good enough for too long and we need to improve it.

“We are committed to creating a modern, sustainable and consistently reliable waste collection service for all residents.

“We are developing our plans to reintroduce a recycling service; introduce a food waste collection service and move to alternate weekly collections,” he continued.

However, Coun Mahmood went on to say that the timing of the changes is affected by the industrial dispute and will depend on “operational consideration”.

“Whilst I wanted to do this quickly so residents see the benefits and we realise the savings for the council, at this stage I’m not able to give a clear timeline,” he said.

Coun Mahmood added that the “first priority” during the strike has been to keep the city clean and said the council’s contingency service was currently achieving a single weekly collection of mixed waste for “most households”.

He also told councillors at the meeting that new waste vehicles, described as “cleaner, greener and safer”, were already being used by the council.

Bin strike tension

Tensions over the strike have continued to rumble on, with Unite the union recently voting to suspend the membership of a number of Labour councillors at the city council.

Unite said that it had voted “overwhelmingly” to re-examine its relationship with Labour and suspend the membership of council leader John Cotton, along with fellow Unite Birmingham Labour councillors and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.

The move followed the council confirming that it was ending negotiations with Unite to resolve the bins strike dispute, which was initially triggered by the loss of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role.

Striking workers have raised concerns about pay while the Labour-run council’s leadership has repeatedly insisted throughout the strike that a “fair and reasonable” offer had been made.

Birmingham City Council said last week that it would notify staff and unions of its intention to enter consultation with affected workers – while keeping the door open to those wanting to accept offers to retrain or be redeployed.

Council leader John Cotton said at the time: “We have negotiated in good faith but unfortunately Unite has rejected all offers so we must now press ahead to both address our equal pay risk and make much needed improvements to the waste service.

“This is a service that has not been good enough for a long time and we must improve it.

“Unite’s demands would leave us with another equal pay bill of hundreds of millions of pounds, which is totally unacceptable, and would jeopardise the considerable progress we have made in our financial recovery.”

Earlier this year, Coun Mahmood was asked whether there could be further financial issues along the line for the council amid the disruption to the waste service.

“Obviously there would be a cost element if [the transformation] is delayed because that’s in the budget itself,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service back in March. “But we are hoping we can resolve this dispute.

“I don’t want to be seen having the largest council in the country and we’ve only got a recycling rate of 22/23 per cent.

“We need to be in the Champions League, not the Vauxhall Conference.”

Several issues have contributed to the recent financial turmoil at the Labour-run city council, according to external auditors.

These include the equal pay debacle, inadequate budget setting, poor service management, demand-led pressures and the disastrous implementation of a new IT system.

Labour politicians have also highlighted the impact of previous funding cuts on local government.