UK’s Birmingham needs the Pied Piper as rats run amok in city amid trash piles

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Trash piles are spreading all around, and rats—as big as cats—roam in the streets, sniffing the acrid smell of rotting garbage. The United Kingdom’s second largest city, Birmingham, seems to have travelled back into time and become a town in some third world country. The citizens of Birmingham are a harried lot as an estimated 17,000 tonnes of trash has piled up in the city since nearly 400 garbage collectors went on a strike last month. 

The moment a rare garbage truck arrives in the city with a population of over 1.1 million, people rush out carrying cans and bags full of rubbish. Mounds of putrefying garbage have turned into breeding grounds for worms, maggots, and vermin, and rats, cats, and foxes have started clawing through heaps of litter. 

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Videos on social media show huge rats scurrying around in broad daylight.
The rats have turned rowdy, as one video shows bin men running to save themselves as rats chase them.

Few garbage collectors amid strike

The refuse collectors are on strike in Birmingham over the city government’s move to abolish a certain role within their ranks. The protest has been simmering for a few months and fuelled an all-out strike on March 11. Only a fraction of the garbage collectors are working, with less than half the usual number of garbage trucks being operational.

The garbage collectors’ union says some staff employed by the council stand to lose 8,000 euros ($10,400) per year under the planned restructuring of the service.

“We can’t afford that for our toil. We go out all weathers, we was out in Covid, we just can’t afford to lose that with the cost of living going up,” said Wayne Bishop, a 59-year-old driver and union member, adding that his work is gruelling and deserves more.

Birmingham City Council contests the charge about the restructuring and claims it has “made a fair and reasonable offer” to workers. 
The council’s website states that the staffing changes were crucial to “become financially sustainable” and modernise the waste collection service.

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City Councillor Mohammed Idrees is worried about Birmingham’s reputation. The city, known for its industrial heritage and rich multicultural makeup, is “getting a very bad image throughout the world.”

Rodent crisis and health risks

Due to piling waste, the city is infested with rats. Locals complain the rodents are entering their homes and cars, chewing their valuables.
“I’m afraid to open my front door, they’re everywhere,” said Mary Dore, a resident of the city’s Balsall Heath area, told The Guardian.
“They run out from under the cars when you get in, they’re going in the engines. They chewed through the cables in my son’s car, costing him god knows how much,” she added.

“There’s rubbish everywhere, rats everywhere … (they’re) bigger than cats,” said another resident, as per CNN.
The pest-infested piles have now started affecting the health of citizens.
“It’s scary – I’m worried for my kids,” said Abel Mihai, 23, who lives in the Saltley area, adding that his three-year-old son ‘vomits from the smell’ whenever he goes out.

The garbage piles have also become a fire hazard. “There was a bin fire on the end of our street the other night,” Mihai added.
The problem has even taken on political overtones and is causing a political stink for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Starmer admitted in parliament that the situation in Birmingham was “completely unacceptable” but insisted his government would provide extra support and stood by the council, which is run by his Labour Party.

Some residents have got tired of waiting and have taken matters into their own hands.
The members of a community centre contacted a local councillor for assistance and arranged a waste truck.
People lug their rubbish to a temporary collection site and load it onto trucks staffed by non-striking workers.

 

 





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