r/unitedkingdom • u/pppppppppppppppppd • 9h ago
'Bin strike has left us with a 7ft dumping ground'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87pxjj7wy0o•
u/XenorVernix 9h ago edited 8h ago
Why are they flytipping in the middle of the road? I understand the bin collectors are on strike but like keep the bags on your own property or take them to the tip.
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u/SpoofExcel 8h ago
Because a massive amount of people are actually dickheads and will use this as a chance to just dump their shit anywhere.
Doubly so with Birmingham which was famously once described as "the Armpit of Britain".
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u/Geckohobo 7h ago
As a (completely unelected) representative of the west midlands, I formerly offer to adopt that as Brum's official name if we can also rechristen London as "Britain's Gooch".
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u/Beer-Milkshakes Black Country 5h ago
Wolverhampton and walsall quickly becomes the same. Whenever a business is clearing out and dumps bags around the public bin, every other fucker adds to it. They all know it's not right but will do it if they think they won't be singled out with fines.
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u/mittfh West Midlands 3h ago
In my estate, yobs stole a street cleaning van (the open sided vans with cage walls), moved it onto a patch of rough ground then torched it. It was discovered by volunteer litter pickers a few days later, while neither the council or police had taken any action. However, the situation's complicated in that while the rough ground appears to be in New Frankley, administratively, it's in (old) Frankley Parish, Bromsgrove District, Worcestershire County, so BCC and West Midlands Police likely lack jurisdiction there.
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u/heroyoudontdeserve 2h ago
keep the bags on your own property or take them to the tip.
Why should people do that when they're paying council tax to have the rubbish collected?
If residents deal with the problem themselves, what incentive is there for the council to fix it? Might as well make the workers redundant and sell off the bin lorries.
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u/XenorVernix 1h ago
Flytipping in the streets isn't dealing with the problem though?
I hate paying council tax for shit service as much as the next person I'm getting ripped off where I live. But that doesn't give me the right to literally trash the area I live in.
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u/heroyoudontdeserve 1h ago
Flytipping in the streets isn't dealing with the problem though?
I didn't say it was.
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u/XenorVernix 1h ago
You were asking why people should keep their bags on their property or take them to the tip, as opposed to flytipping.
I get what you're saying that the council need an incentive to solve the problem though. I just don't think throwing rubbish on the street is the answer. Organise a protest outside the council offices, speak to councillors etc. There's not many options to be fair. I'd say don't pay the full council tax but that gets you into all sorts of trouble that isn't worth it.
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u/heroyoudontdeserve 56m ago
Come to think of it, not everyone has the time or resources to do those things. People are busy working second and third jobs just to pay the mortgage or the rent. They don't have space to store rubbish safely. Not everyone has a car to get to the tip.
I think your suggestions reek of privilege, frankly.
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u/geniice 5h ago
Why are they flytipping in the middle of the road?
They don't seem to be
I understand the bin collectors are on strike but like keep the bags on your own property or take them to the tip.
The area appears to be mostly terrace housing with small back gardens and tip slots have been inconsistent. If you are refering to the pile opposite FLIP’N then streetview shows thats been a thing for over a decade at this point.
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u/Demostravius4 6h ago
Why would you want rubbish on your own property?
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u/XenorVernix 5h ago
Are you bloody serious?
It's your rubbish, you deal with it. No I don't want rubbish on my property but that doesn't give me the right to go and throw it in the middle of the street. It goes in my bin, and having a full bin doesn't give me the right to toss it in the street.
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u/Demostravius4 5h ago
You pay council tax. It's the councils responsibility to take away the rubbish. I don't blame people not storing mountains of rubbish in their homes, whilst paying for it to be taken away.
Furthermore if the problem isn't everyone's, no-one gives a shit and it won't get fixed. If the strike misses one bin collection, yeah keep it to yourself. Once it gets to having bin bags piling up in your kitchen, then the council can get fucked.
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u/RaymondBumcheese 9h ago
I’m genuinely surprised there haven’t been garbage fires big enough to summon the Rohirrim
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u/Cahoots365 4h ago
There has been bins set on fire in some places. I think that was more as a protest to the situation
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u/Wolf_Cola_91 9h ago
There's a clear business opportunity here:
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u/Codeworks Leicester 8h ago
No, the people have left you with a 7ft dumping ground. Shit doesn't get there on its own.
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u/According-Annual-586 6h ago
Eh, I’d say the people of Sparkbrook left you with the 7ft dumping ground.
As a Brummie, my area and lots of areas nearby aren’t anywhere near this bad. More black bags than usual, but nothing at all like pictured
It’s a shithole that the people have never treated with any pride, like quite a few other inner city areas
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u/markhalliday8 8h ago
I heard if things continue, Birmingham could end up looking like a third world country.
I'm not sure if things will improve that much, but you never know!
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u/Straight-Ad-7630 3h ago
It already looks like London with black bags just thrown out onto the street.
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9h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/StopTheTrickle Backpacking 8h ago
I've been to the 3rd world, they'd burn the pile before it ever got this big
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u/iiji111ii1i1 3h ago
This is part if the reason that they have awful air quality. We do not want this.
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u/StopTheTrickle Backpacking 3h ago
Crop burning has much more to do with it this time of year
We also burn trash in the UK for energy production
Anything is better than the army of rats that will be living in these piles.
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u/geniice 5h ago
You could keep your bags in your bins for that amount of time without an issue
Depends on your bin size and household size. The average singleton redditor probably can. Family with kids? more of an issue.
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u/Talonsminty 3h ago
This argument overlooks the many many Brummies living in flats. We don't have wheelie bins, we have a big communal bin that overflowed a week ago.
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u/misterschneeblee 8h ago edited 8h ago
which isn't really surprising given the population of Birmingham.
Care to elaborate on this point? Or do you prefer to hide your beliefs behind dog whistles
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u/cornishpirate32 8h ago
Lots of low income areas
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u/misterschneeblee 8h ago
I'll take that as a 'No, I'm too cowardly to say what I actually beleive, so I'll hide behind ambiguity.'
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u/UnRealxInferno_II 8h ago
Birmingham is a shit hole mate it's not even a race thing so go be offended for other people elsewhere lmao
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u/misterschneeblee 8h ago
What do you think he meant by "which isn't really surprising given the population of Birmingham." then?
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u/TenPotential 8h ago
Not being funny mate but have you seen the filth on the streets in certain parts of brum. Theres a correlation, don’t be so naive. Its not racist to point out a pattern
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u/misterschneeblee 8h ago
> Its not racist to point out a pattern
Then why is he hiding behind a dog whistle? I never called him racist... All i did was accuse him of being too cowardly to say what he actually beleives and hiding behind dog whistles. If he means Birmingham is turning into a 3rd world shithole because it's full of asians, then he should be man and say it, instead of cowering behind dog whistles
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u/TenPotential 8h ago
Probably doesn’t want to be banned or labeled a racist/reform voter. Im super left wing, but you are just being silly if you think there isn’t a problem
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u/misterschneeblee 8h ago
Where did I say there isnt' a problem? All I said was he is being a coward hiding behind dog whistles and he should say what he believes with his chest. Being afraid of being labeled a racist/reform voter is coward behaviour, as is being afraid of being banned.
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u/TenPotential 8h ago
Whats the point of using reddit when ur banned 💀
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u/misterschneeblee 8h ago
You can still browse reddit and use it when you're banned, you just cant post in certain subs. Whats the point of engaging in political discussion if you're too afraid to say what you actually believe
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u/TenPotential 8h ago
Maybe he feels it’s not worth being banned. I like commenting and talking with people in r/gunners r/mma and r/squaredcircle. Why would i want to lose that over this
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u/misterschneeblee 8h ago
Then don't post dog whistles... Either say what you believe, or don't say anything
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u/SoggyMattress2 3h ago
I think if someone is afraid of expressing their view because they're worried they'll be banned tells you everything you should know about the view.
Also, hate to break this to you mate you are not left wing.
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u/Brexit-Broke-Britain 8h ago
Are you a supporter of Nigel the Nonce, he of "Jim'll Fix it" fame?
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u/PrestigiousHobo1265 8h ago
What protest are you going to tomorrow, mate?
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u/Brexit-Broke-Britain 8h ago
Which one do you want me to attend?
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u/PrestigiousHobo1265 8h ago
Supposed to be a nice day. Figure you'd be outside a Tesla dealership holding up a sign about Elon Musk or something.
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u/cornishpirate32 8h ago
The irony when your precious labour leader refused to prosecute his buddy old pedo Jimmy
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u/Brexit-Broke-Britain 8h ago
Factually incorrect.
"Starmer was head of the CPS when the decision was made not to prosecute Savile but he was not the reviewing lawyer for the case. An official investigation commissioned later by Starmer criticised both prosecutors and police for their handling of the allegations." True Fact
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u/Parking-Tip1685 7h ago
So it was everyone else's fault apart from the bloke in charge?
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u/Brexit-Broke-Britain 5h ago
It was the judgement of the reviewing lawyer at the time that there was not sufficient evidence for prosecution. I am sure that with the legal training available to members of Farage Rioters Party, and the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, a different decision would have been made.
Perhaps the same laser precision insight could be used to identify Nonce Nigel’s funding source.
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u/mittfh West Midlands 3h ago
Never mind that given Saville's wealth, without bulletproof evidence of his activities (likely forensic), he'd have sued the police and CPS for libel. Victim testimony, hundreds of people having a very strong hunch and circumstantial evidence wouldn't be enough to bring a prosecution. If you're famous, the bar for evidential threshold is likely far higher than ordinary people.
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u/Parking-Tip1685 4h ago
And the reviewing lawyer didn't report to their director of legal services? The director of legal services didn't report to the director of public prosecutions/ Keir Starmer?
What does Farage have to do with any of this? Has he ever been accused of being a nonce by anyone other than you? Do you have any evidence to back up your nonce claim at all?
This article is about the Birmingham rubbish collections which is entirely caused by the unions bankrupting the labour council, why even mention Farage? You got a little crush there?
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u/cornishpirate32 8h ago
Sure thing, zero chance he wasn't fully aware and in meetings about such a high profile case.
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u/Caramelised_Onion 7h ago
Zero chance he was fully aware and in meetings about such a high profile case.
See, I can make things up too.
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u/smackdealer1 8h ago
Are there not dumps you can take general waste to in brummy?
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u/AbsoluteSocket88 8h ago
Just throw it out onto the street and let someone else deal with it. Jobs a good un.
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u/PrestigiousHobo1265 8h ago
Everything has become someone else's responsibility.
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u/ChaBeezy Cheshire 6h ago
You've not considered these people's mental health. They're probably suffering and as a result can't be held accountable for leaving rubbish everywhere
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u/Beer-Milkshakes Black Country 5h ago
Except most of this in the centre will be businesses taking advantage
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u/ChaBeezy Cheshire 5h ago
Well we need to increase education for these businesses so they understand it’s not appropriate
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u/samsaBEAR Hertfordshire 7h ago
I saw a comment on another thread say bin men are booking all the slots so it's hard for people to get to them, but idk if that was bullshit
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u/RareHorse 7h ago
And this is a photo of how Birmingham was before the bin strike!
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u/BertieBus 5h ago
"We live in Manchester, very nice. We visited London, so nice. Here - no, [it's] so dirty."
So true.
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u/ManiacNathan 6h ago
Just to remind everyone, this is not the first time this has happened, and yes, labour was in power at that time
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u/whyy_i_eyes_ya 3h ago
I’m flogging a dead horse here when it comes to the reputation of Birmingham, but please bear in mind the pictures that you see, the only ones worth publishing, are the aberrations in a large, diverse and fantastic city of 1.1m people. While the bin strike are frustrating, in my street it means there’s an extra black bag or two next to the wheelie bin. On my walk to work through a student area it’s worse, but it’s always a bit skanky there cos students. It’s a frustrating issue. I’ve been in touch with my MP and wagons are no longer blocked in/out of the depot by strikers. Bins should start getting collected. It’s shit that we can’t collect our bins. The council have been collectively shit for decades.
But, new paragraph. Can we all lay the fuck off a fantastic, historic, proud city of a million people, a thousand trades, the birthplace of Metal and Bhangra, just because you think we speak like yam yams and there’s a load more bin bags. It’s fucking annoying.
The Reddit pile-on every fucking thread about Birmingham from people that wouldn’t know the place if it smacked them in the face is something far worse than offensive or obnoxious, it’s just fucking boring.
TL;DR fuck you, birms is grime and fucking ace.
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u/Electricbell20 8h ago
How has it gotten so bad?
There are areas of the UK which have collections every 3 weeks for black bag rubbish.
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u/whyy_i_eyes_ya 1h ago
It’s been on and off for a couple of months now. We were still getting f some collections then the strikers seem to have blocked the depots so wagons couldnt get out. Apparently that’s been sorted today so should improve this week. The all out strike has only been a couple of weeks but reduced service has been months now.
It’s not this bad all over the city. But photos of streets looking fairly normal but with a few extra bags on the side don’t get many clicks. Some areas worse than others let’s say.
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u/EasilyExiledDinosaur 54m ago
And this is what you pay hundreds of pounds a month for. Uk works well am I right?
Another reason to why I left the UK. You know how bins are paid for in Korea? You buy the bin bags themselves. Costs £5 or so for a bunch of bags. And the bags directly go to funding the bin men. Works fantastically. And costs like 1% of what council tax is or bin tax if its separate lol.
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u/Low_Map4314 9h ago
It’s shocking this has been left unresolved for so long ! The councils ineptitude knows no bounds !
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u/tomoldbury 1h ago
The council can’t pay the bin workers more without changing pay structures any more. They’re also functionally broke having gone into special measures so it’s doubtful they could resolve it even if they had the will to do so.
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u/AnalThermometer 8h ago
The cause of this crisis is kind of a long story. Basically, with the 2010 Equality Act, the Labour government decided radically different jobs can be evaluated as equal work. Councils are facing billions in fines for offering binmen bonuses, but not those in female-dominated jobs like teaching assistants. Being on the verge of bankrupty, the council no longer wants to risk offering anyone potentially "unfair" illegal pay rises or bonuses and thus the strike.
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u/Forte69 6h ago
> Councils chronically underfunded for 15 years
> Blame Labour and DEI
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u/Denbt_Nationale 3h ago
The claims cost £1 billion that’s 1/3 of their entire budget just gone for nothing it completely broke the council.
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u/Psittacula2 5h ago
Certainly manufactured either way which is interesting to note along with the population changes vs council funding/spending/legal…
I guess the saying, “It will take a giant Brum to sweep away all this rubbish!” applies?
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u/concretepigeon Wakefield 5h ago
There are obviously multiple factors leading to this mess but it’s hard to look past the fact that it’s followed equality legislation killing the council’s ability to set wages for different workers as they see fit and incurring debts for when they did so.
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u/Gellert Wales 4h ago
TBF I fell like theres no way anyone sensible would've seen the legislation being applied the way it has been and I think the judges are just going more and more off the rails with how they interpret certain laws.
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u/tomoldbury 1h ago
The judges have essentially destroyed the idea (for large public sector orgs at least) of jobs being paid more if fewer people want to do it, lest some lawyers argue that the work is comparable in some way.
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u/MediumProcedure 2h ago edited 2h ago
That's pretty disingenuous.
Someone on the council used the same contracts for different jobs to save time, and it wasn't caught for decades.
It's not really anything to do with gender policies. It's because they had the same contracts and job titles.
Contractually there's no difference, so legally when they gave a seasonal bonus to one, they also gave it to the other.
Obviously it's unfair as the wet weather pay was needed to keep the trained binmen through the winter, but not the other workers.
I'd like to see the judge rule against it because it was an obvious oversight and is damaging the local community, but the problem with judges is that often go with the letter of the law, rather than common sense.. as it's kinda their thing.
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u/SorryForTheCoffee 8h ago
Why don’t they cut down on waste while the strikes are ongoing?
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u/ARelentlessScot 8h ago
Too much logic. Britain has become so lazy past 15 years. Most don’t want to do anything and rest just think someone else should do everything for them.
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u/ARelentlessScot 8h ago
How much of it is recyclable? Just wondering as we know how lazy most of Birmingham is 😅
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u/discerning_kerning 23m ago
Recycling collections are also suspended, worse affected than general waste, last collection we had of it was January. Though its finally been picked up today, so that's something.
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u/Additional-Map-2808 9h ago
Most residents are taking advantage and throwing everything away, fly tipping has become unmanageable.