Residents fear for health while ‘cat-sized’ rats raid rubbish piles in streets

People living in Birmingham say their health is suffering from the stench of piling waste while “cat-sized” rats raid the mounting rubbish outside their homes.

There have been warnings over public health as rubbish has been left on the city’s streets since hundreds of bin workers began an all-out strike more than a month ago.

Unite members held a rally outside Birmingham City Council’s offices in Victoria Square on Tuesday, a day after they voted overwhelmingly to reject a deal to end the strike, with one saying she feared she could lose her home because of the pay cut.

A Balsall Heath resident who has dozens of black bin bags full of waste leaning against the wall in front of her house said the stench has been making her asthma worse.

Carol Downes, 63, said: “I’ve got asthma and I can’t actually do my gardening because of the bins and the smell next to it.

“I can’t stay out, it just takes my breath away.”

The school worker said she has seen “cat-sized” rats which have been eating from her bird feeders and running up her driveway.

She said: “They are getting cheeky. They’ve been in my bird feeders, they’ve been everywhere really, I’m keeping the door closed. They can be cat-sized, definitely.”

Another woman, who did not want to be named, described the rats in the city as “brazen”.

She said: “I could hear this banging and it was a rat and it chewed its way into the bin and was trying to get out.

“I opened the lid but you don’t know if it’s going to jump at you or run away.”

Asked about her reaction to the refuse workers rejecting the deal, Ms Downes said: “The problem is we don’t know what that deal was.

“We’re just told that the council has offered them a really lucrative deal, a better deal.

“But it’s health and safety now. It really is the health of people, young and old, even without rats being about, just having rotting rubbish.”

Ali Mohammed, aged 67, said the stench from a huge pile of rubbish near his home in Balsall Heath has caused him to have problems with his chest.

He said: “The smell of the rubbish causes health problems. When I smell the rubbish I get a chest cough. The smell affects my chest. I think the rubbish here is no good for the people…and everyone to live around.

“They need to finish (the strike) as soon as they can.

“We need to be as before, for the people collecting the rubbish to come and collect it every week.”

Mr Mohammed said the smell “affects everyone” and has caused “big rats” to scurry down the road.

A striking waste recycling and collection officer named Wendy, who did not give her surname, said she is not asking for more money but does not want her wage to be cut.

Wendy, who has done the job for five years, said: “I’m a single parent and I brought up three children.

“I also rent my property from Birmingham City Council, so if I lose £600 potentially I could lose my home.

“Everyone’s got bills but the bigger picture is we’re all standing here for everyone, and the agency as well.

“When you’re on the back of that wagon, it doesn’t matter if it’s rain, sun, hail, snow, ice – it’s a job where you can have a laugh every day with the family you have created in that yard.”

A driver team leader, who has worked for the council for 33 years, said he has had nothing from his employers to “allay” fears that drivers could be the next to have their pay cut in the dispute with striking refuse workers.

Derek Roberts said: “We’ve already been told as drivers that we will be next.

“We’re currently going through an evaluation process ourselves which could potentially lead us to the same-sized pay cuts.

“We haven’t had anything from our employer to allay those fears.

“That’s what they seem to think, they can divide and conquer and split people into different sections and it’s not affecting you, so you’ll just go back to work, and it’s not like that.

“If I’m going to lose £600 a month for the rest of my working life, it’s worth the sacrifice at the moment, but not one of us wants to be on the picket line.

“We all want to be out collecting rubbish and doing what we’re employed to do.”