Residents of Birmingham are facing a 7.5% increase in council tax despite ongoing issues with overflowing bins and widespread littering. The city council is switching from weekly to fortnightly bin collections, exacerbating the problem for many residents.
Birmingham residents face a 7.5 per cent council tax rise despite ongoing issues with waste on the city's streets. Litter pollutes green spaces, piles of rubbish block pavements and bulky items such as mattresses and fridge freezers lie dumped in spots designated for shrubbery. The city council, the largest local authority in Europe, has told residents to put their household bin out on their normal collection day – and leave it out if it is not collected.
Residents have been told to put their household bin out on their normal collection day and leave it out if it is not collected. Groups have sprung up across the city, and individual residents can be spotted using litter-pickers to clean up their front gardens. Birmingham City Council is switching household waste collections from weekly to fortnightly from April. Mother-of-three Fairouz Falim says on days when the rubbish dumped on Camelot Way is especially bad, “you can’t walk” down the pavement. Ms Falim, who was previously exempt from paying council tax, has since been told she has to pay an annual bill of around £700. She says it would be a struggle to pay and she will have to reduce what she spends on groceries and clothes. She adds that she faced paying higher council tax at a time when services, such as the school bus that her daughter relied on, being cut. Delivery driver Fida Hussein, 54, is used to seeing lots of litter as he travels through the city and has personally reported fly-tipping to the council. He feels the Small Heath rubbish issues were being ignored because of the ethnicity of many of the residents. Nisha Ahmed, 29, believes the bin worker strikes have exacerbated the issue. “Henshaw Road, if you walk straight down there it’s just piles and piles. I think people from around the area go and drop all their stuff off. So when they’re on strike, it was mounted – mattresses and fridges and everything.” Ms Ahmed, who is currently unemployed, pays around £120 in council tax annually and says she cannot afford an increase.Rubbish mounds and the fees taxpayers are now charged if they request help to treat associated pest problems are the backdrop against which the council is set to switch from weekly to fortnightly bin collections – and introduce a 7.49 per cent increase in council tax. Fida Hussain, 54, has reported fly-tipping in Birmingham’s Small Heath area to the council. Dumped fridge freezers, household waste and mattresses lie in various streets in Small Heath, which includes finding around £20 million in savings in its street cleaning budget, as it confronts budget gaps of £83 million in 2026/27 and £159 million in 2028/29. In the face of its financial crisis, councillors voted in favour of awarding themselves a 5.7 per cent rise in allowances. The mother-of-two says she cannot understand why the council had spent money installing traffic lights on roads that had never previously had them but neglected derelict buildings, improving services for children. Vijay Singh, 60, says he has reported rubbish pile-ups to the council but has not seen any improvement. “It’s like a dumping ground for people,” he says, adding he had witnessed people in cars pull up and throw rubbish on the street. “All of this bin smell is coming into our house and then in the morning you see rats running around.” Vijay Singh, 60, who has complained to Birmingham City Council about uncollected refuse piled up near his home in the Balsall Heath area, says it is also affecting Mr Singh’s finances as he has had to pay for pest control to tackle mice. “We had to pay like £500-600 just to get somebody to come out,” he says. “We got rid of them, but then they’re going to get in because of all these restaurants, all this rubbish around here.” Last year Birmingham City Council introduced a rat charge or “rat tax” as it is often referred to, a fee of £24 per visit to treat rat problems in residents’ homes or gardens. Charges of £95 per visit are payable for dealing with mice or cockroaches. On one street in Birmingham’s famed Balti Triangle, three large commercial waste bins and two wheelie bins, are the focal point for rubbish dumping. One commercial bin is brimming with waste. On the pavement beside the bins a couple dozen black sacks and several cardboard boxes and carrier bags of rubbish spew on to the street. A resident says a small yellow bin, set slightly apart from the rest tends to contain discarded raw meat.
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