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'You walk down the streets and it's disgusting'

Josh Sandiford
BBC Radio WM
Shyamantha Asokan
BBC News, West Midlands
BBC A man, who is wearing a black jacket and carrying a rucksack, is standing in front of dozens of bins in a street lined with terraced houses and cars.BBC
Joe Thompson lives on Rookery Road in Selly Oak, where some streets were lined with overstuffed bins

University students said their streets had become "disgusting" and "embarrassing", as the city's bin workers ramped up strikes that began in January.

Birmingham bin workers started an indefinite all-out strike on Tuesday, following on and off strike-days since the start of the year over pay, working conditions, and changes to some roles.

"You walk down the streets here and it's disgusting," said Joe Thompson, who lives on Rookery Road in the student neighbourhood of Selly Oak, where some streets were lined with overstuffed bins.

Birmingham City Council has previously said it has made a "fair and reasonable" offer to the union Unite, whose members have staged the walkouts.

Unite has said the dispute centres on the council's decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles from some bin workers. The union says this would make the job less safe and result in pay cuts for affected workers.

Three women stand on the edge of a road. Cars and houses can be seen behind them.
Ella Teale, Molly Ake, and Chloe Jones said they had seen rubbish on the pavement, overflowing bins, and rats in recent weeks

In Selly Oak, Birmingham University students said the neighbourhood felt scruffy under normal circumstances, but things had become particularly bad since the bin strikes started.

"There's lots of rats - there's literally a dead rat outside our house," said Chloe Jones, an international relations student who lives on Alton Road.

"I don't know if there's a single empty bin in Selly now."

A man with a brown jacket and blue T-shirt stands with his arms crossed in front of a house. A row of bins and trees can be seen beside bin.
Joshua Kemp said houses were "filling up with rubbish" as the bins outside were full

The students who spoke to the BBC said they often lived in houses of up to eight people who were all cooking separate meals, which created more rubbish than a typical family home, and they often did not have cars to take the waste to a tip.

They added that recycling collections in particular had been delayed in recent weeks.

Dozens of overflowing bins on the pavements. Cars and houses line each side of the road.
Dozens of overflowing bins can be seen on Rookery Road

"It's not just the fact that litter's going all over streets - it's because we've got no bins to [put] it in; our houses are filling up with rubbish as well," said Joshua Kemp, a third-year sports science student who lives on Rookery Road.

During the BBC's trip to Selly Oak, a dead rat was seen on the corner of Alton Road and St Edwards Road.

A rat lies on the edge of a pavement with a car on the road.
A rat was seen on the corner of St Edwards Road during the BBC's visit to the area

Craig Cooper, the council's strategic director of city operations, told BBC Radio WM on Tuesday that a "fair and reasonable consultation had been under way since last autumn".

Mr Cooper added that the WRCO role "was not critical to health and safety" and emphasised that the responsibility sat with "every employee, not one person".

The BBC contacted the council on Wednesday to see if it wished to add any further comment in response to the students' observations.

Ella Teale, who is studying sport, health and exercise sciences, said she had seen "rubbish all up the road" on a recent day in Selly Oak.

She added: "It's actually quite embarrassing if my friends come and visit from other unis, and they have to see what state we're living in."

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