Birmingham Council’s bins boss survives calls of ‘no confidence’ amid fury over strike
Birmingham Council’s bins boss has survived calls of ‘no confidence’ from opposition councillors amid fury over the bins strike.
There were heated exchanges between councillors on Tuesday as deep frustration over the strike, now in its second year, repeatedly surfaced at a meeting of the full council.
The industrial action was triggered by a dispute between the Labour-run Birmingham City Council and Unite the union over the loss of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer role.
With a resolution to the strike still not seemingly close, Conservative councillors this week put forward an amendment to a motion and called for a vote of no confidence in Coun Majid Mahmood, the cabinet member for environment.
The Tories argued that the council had failed keep the city clean from fly-tipping and to resolve long-running disruption to waste services.
Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday, Coun Deirdre Alden told the council chamber: “It’s time this council acknowledged it has no confidence in the cabinet member.
“Under his watch, there are piles of rubbish and fly-tipping on our streets […] and a year-long bin strike with no end in sight.
“It is an absolute disgrace – the cabinet member for environment should resign.”
Seconding the motion, Coun Timothy Huxtable said in a statement: “Residents can see with their own eyes that Birmingham is not being kept clean and this did not start with the latest industrial action.”
The shadow cabinet member for environment continued: “Thirteen months into another bin strike, the administration still cannot explain how it plans to end the dispute or clean up the city.
“That failure of leadership leaves us with no confidence in the cabinet member responsible.”
Conservative councillor Gareth Moore added: “It’s time for [Coun Mahmood] to go because frankly the situation we’ve got here in Birmingham […] is a disgrace.
“The streets are getting dirtier and dirtier, I’ve never known it so bad in my almost 15 years on this council.”
The Conservative’s amendment to the motion was not passed through however following a vote among the councillors.
‘Dumping grounds’
During the meeting, Coun Majid Mahmood acknowledged that fly-tipping ‘blights too many communities’ but said action was being taken to tackle it across the city.
“Not only is it a total eyesore but illegally dumped rubbish poses serious risks to public health and wildlife,” he told councillors.
“We are sick and tired of people making our neighbourhoods dumping grounds – this has got to stop.
“We want people to feel proud of their neighbourhood and this kind of behaviour works against that.”
He continued that the council was issuing fixed penalty notices; seizing vehicles linked to fly-tipping and deploying CCTV in targeted locations.
“We want to do more, much more,” Coun Mahmood added. “That’s why we will be embarking on a more coordinated and comprehensive inspection of commercial businesses.
“In addition, there will be more investigation of waste accumulated on land, more engagement with land owners and more enforcement where they fail to take appropriate action.”
When it comes to the bins strike itself, striking workers have claimed they face a pay cut of £8,000 – a figure the council has disputed.
The Labour-run council has insisted a fair offer had been made before negotiations came to an end last summer, with the authority saying it had ‘reached the absolute limit of what we can offer’ amid equal pay fears.
Addressing the strike at a meeting on Tuesday, Birmingham council leader John Cotton said: “[Bringing this dispute to a close] has to be done on the basis of not reopening this council’s equal pay liabilities and delivering a modern waste service.
“Those points are non-negotiable – we are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past.
“We are open to dialogue to find a solution.
“However, those points have to be non-negotiable – it would not be in the best interests of the taxpayers of this city if we were to do anything else.”
On the challenges in finding a resolution, the council’s managing director Joanne Roney told a meeting this month that settling the dispute “cannot worsen the equal pay implications”.
She said there were also financial ‘best-value’ considerations that will be looked at by the government-appointed commissioners.
“It is incredibly difficult to find a way through these various hurdles,” she said.
