Like so many other people who live in Birmingham, I and my family have been experiencing problems with missed bin collections, with overflowing wheelie bins left uncollected or picked up days late for a number of weeks now.
As an MP I have also been inundated with calls and e-mails from residents who have been going through the same thing. According to a report in the Birmingham Mail this week, the number of missed collections has soared by 5,000 a week since the start of the present industrial dispute between Birmingham City Council and unions representing bin crews.
The council has set up a web link on which people can report missed collections here: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/…/report_a_missed_bin_or_sack…
Every time a resident contacts my office with details of where collections have been missed, we also report this to the council and ask them to go out to pick up the rubbish as soon as possible.
None of this, of course, means the problem goes away and it is clear that a long term solution requires a resolution of the current dispute. Obviously, not being a party to the dispute, neither I nor any of my Birmingham Labour MP colleagues have it in our power to solve it directly. What I can tell you is that, between us, we are in touch with both the city council and the unions to emphasise the importance of bringing the dispute to an end as soon as possible.
