How waste collection issues plagued Birmingham City Council in lead-up to massive bins strike

But waste issues were already plaguing the authority in the months before the industrial action began.

It was revealed last week that the council had agreed to apologise and pay out to a resident who reportedly had to endure misery and safety fears due to numerous missed collections throughout 2024.

The woman claimed the Labour-run council “repeatedly failed” to collect communal waste containers, which led to an accumulation of rubbish near her block of flats.

She felt compelled to hire a skip “at her own expense” to dispose of the waste, a watchdog which investigates council complaints said in a report.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman concluded that the council had caused “difficulties and financial expense” for the woman, adding it had agreed to pay her “£300 to recognise the frustration” and “£168 for the cost of the skip”.

Unreliable bin collections were a recurring concern in several neighbourhoods across the city last year.

Areas such as Edgbaston, Bartley Green, Selly Park, Northfield, Harborne and Sutton Coldfield were all reportedly affected by missed collections.

The issue was raised at council meetings too, with Green Party councillor Julien Pritchard (Druids Heath) describing the collection service as “appalling” last November.

The extent of the council’s waste woes in 2024 was revealed earlier this year, when figures confirmed that it was struggling to meet bin collection targets in the months before the start of the strike.

A council performance report, covering the third quarter of 2024-25, said the number of ‘reported missed bin collections per 100,000 collections scheduled’ had missed the quarterly target of 90.

Instead, it was 356 – a 31 per cent increase compared to the second quarter of the year and “significantly higher” than the previous year’s average of 166.

Conservative councillor Ewan Mackey (Sutton Roughley) reacted by saying: “I think it’s important we look at this set of figures and don’t turn around and say ‘we’ve had a bin strike this year and that’s why the figures are so bad’.

“The service has some questions to look at regardless of the strike.”

Why was Birmingham City Council struggling with bin collections before the strike?

The age of lorries, later start times and tensions over changes to the waste collection service were all named as factors which contributed to the bins frustration last year.

The council performance report said bin collection figures towards the end of 2024 had been “affected by industrial relations challenges”.

“Although this period predates the start of industrial action, it coincides with the implementation phase of removing the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer [WRCO] role,” it said.

“While the direct impact is difficult to quantify, this context is important for understanding recent performance trends.”

The loss of the WRCO role has been at the centre of the dispute between the council and Unite the union, which escalated into an all-out strike in March this year.

The row has seen striking workers raise concerns about pay while the council’s Labour leadership has repeatedly insisted a “fair and reasonable” offer had been made.

The report continued: “In summary, performance is expected to decline before improving, due to both industrial action and the change programme being implemented throughout 2025.”

Asked about missed bin collections last November, the council’s cabinet member for environment Councillor Majid Mahmood (Bromford and Hodge Hill) acknowledged the service was experiencing some “significant operation difficulties”.

They included vehicle availability at the Lifford Depot, the age of the vehicles and members of the workforce being absent.

Regarding the resident who felt forced to hire a skip to deal with mounting rubbish, the ombudsman said in its report that the collection times for her block of flats had moved from around 6am to 8am.

“The council says it is unable to comment on what caused the missed collections as the driver and crew are involved in the industrial action,” it continued. “However, it again suggests the later start times introduced in 2024 are a potential cause of missed collections.”

It also said the council’s records showed a manager spoke with the collection crew in October 2024, who reportedly suggested the later start times made it more difficult to collect waste due to traffic.

Reacting to the ombudsman’s decision, Councillor Mahmood said: “We apologise to Mrs X for any distress caused.

“We have agreed to pay appropriate compensation along with other actions set out by the ombudsman.”

In January he said new technology would make a positive difference and the system was being reviewed around tower blocks and maisonettes.

Councillor Mahmood has said in the past that the planned transformation of the city’s waste service, set to make savings for the cash-strapped council, would provide Brummies “with a better service that is in line with other councils”.

The council has said it will support the changes by investing in a new fleet of lorries and food waste collection vehicles while also replacing and upgrading its IT system.

But major changes, such as the move to the introduction of fortnightly collections of household rubbish, have been pushed back due to the ongoing strike.

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.

But last month, Councillor Mahmood was unable to say when the changes, and the return of recycling collections, would be realised.