{"id":1718,"date":"2025-03-31T21:42:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T21:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2025-04-01T23:09:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T23:09:33","slug":"this-uk-city-is-so-full-of-rubbish-and-cat-sized-rats-its-declared-a-major-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/31\/this-uk-city-is-so-full-of-rubbish-and-cat-sized-rats-its-declared-a-major-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"This UK city is so full of rubbish and \u2018cat-sized rats\u2019 it\u2019s declared a major incident"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The council vowed to deploy dozens of street cleaners and fly-tip removers to tackle the uncollected rubbish (Picture: Nick Wilkinson\/BirminghamLive)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Birmingham<\/a> has declared a \u2018major incident\u2019 after the city was engulfed by17,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish due to a bin strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rats the size of cats, piles of bin bags and residents fighting over waste collection have become common sights in the rubbish-plagued city<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city council has pledged it will deploy dozens of street cleaners and fly-tip removers to dismantle the towers of waste<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Birmingham city council has today declared a major incident to address the impact of the waste service industrial action,\u2019 it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Officials will also ask for help from neighbouring authorities and the government<\/a> to manage the heaps of garbage, as well as the related health<\/a> and fire risks.<\/p>\n

Members of the Unite union launched the strike amid a long-running dispute<\/a> over the council\u2019s plans to scrap waste collection and recycling officer roles, causing rubbish in Birmingham to pile up and its rodent population to soar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Rats the size of cats have been spotted around the city amid the bin strike (Picture: Nick Wilkinson\/BirminghamLive)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Council officials say depots are blocked every day by pickets, meaning workers cannot get their vehicles out to collect waste.<\/p>\n

Recycling<\/a>, green waste and bulky waste collection have all been suspended during the strike.<\/p>\n

John Cotton, the leader of the council, said: \u2018It\u2019s regrettable that we have had to take this step, but we cannot tolerate a situation that is causing harm and distress to communities across\u00a0Birmingham.<\/p>\n

\u2018I 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\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unless we declare a major incident and deploy the waste service\u2019s contingency plan, then we would be unable to clear the backlog of waste on the streets or improve the frequency of collections.\u2019<\/p>\n

The council says the level of uncollected waste in the city skyrocketed from 483 tonnes a day in the week of March 10 to almost 900 tonnes a day in the week of March 24.<\/p>\n

The number of properties receiving one bin collection a week dropped from 87% to 17% in the same period.<\/p>\n

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class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-thumbnail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-headline\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder\">\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-thumbnail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-headline\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\twindow.addEventListener(‘metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded’, function(data) {<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tif (typeof(data.detail) === ‘undefined’ || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === ‘undefined’ || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === ‘undefined’) {<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\treturn;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t}<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tvar player = data.detail.carousel.el_;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tvar container = player.closest(‘.metro-video-player’);<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tvar placeholder = container.querySelector(‘.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder’);<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tcontainer.removeChild(placeholder);<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tcontainer.classList.add(‘metro-video-player–related-videos-loaded’);<br \/>\n\t\t\t});<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The major incident has been declared <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/02\/06\/map-shows-councils-cutting-bin-collections-despite-council-tax-going-22511992\/\">just days before the city\u2019s council tax is due to rise by 7.5%<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The council tax rise will act as a lifeline for the cash-strapped council, which declared effective bankruptcy in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, talks between Unite and the council slumped to a new low, with the union\u2019s leader, Sharon Graham, accusing it of \u2018bullyboy tactics\u2019 and describing its behaviour as \u2018absolutely disgusting\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Unite claims that 150 workers could lose \u00a38,000 per year in pay under the council\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n<p>The council denies the claims, saying the plans to restructure the service are a crucial part of the authority\u2019s efforts to become financially sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Grahame Turner, technical manager at the National Pest Technicians Association (NPTA), <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/03\/15\/rats-feasting-absolute-banquet-rotting-food-city-hit-bin-strike-22732572\/\">described the waste build-up as a \u2018huge public health danger\u2019<\/a>, advising residents to take uncollected rubbish to the tip themselves.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"646\" height=\"434\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-22825771 lazyload\" alt=\"A pile of bags of rubbish in Birmingham during the refuse collectors strike.\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"http:\/\/softnary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SEI_245839640-8524.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Bags of rubbish pile up across Birmingham during the refuse collectors\u2019 strike (Picture: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He says that rotting food is an \u2018absolute banquet\u2019 to pests like rats, mice and even squirrels.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Birmingham is already extremely vulnerable due to previous strikes and infestation levels of rodents that are observed within urban areas,\u2019 he adds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong><strong><strong>Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"mailto:webnews@metro.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\">webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this, <\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The council vowed to deploy dozens of street cleaners and fly-tip removers to tackle the uncollected rubbish (Picture: Nick Wilkinson\/BirminghamLive) Birmingham has declared a \u2018major incident\u2019 after the city was engulfed by17,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish due to a bin strike. Rats the size of cats, piles of bin bags and residents fighting over waste […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1724,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions\/1724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}