They're Everywhere Rats, fear and rubbish pile up in Birmingham

I'm afraid to open my front door, they're everywhere," said Mary Dore, considering the ground outside her house in Balsall Heath suspiciously. "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.

- Jessica Murray

"There's one street I can't walk my dog because they come running out of the grass and the piles of rubbish. One time I screamed."

She's referring to rats, which have multiplied rapidly as the rubbish has piled up in a continuing bin strike in Birmingham.

Yesterday, it was four weeks since bin workers walked out indefinitely, after striking intermittently since January, and a day after the council declared a major incident over 17,000 tonnes of rubbish on the streets.

Across the road from Dore's house, two huge mounds of bin bags have accumulated and, as the weather warms up, they are starting to smell.

"It's the smell and the germs. There's loads of rats. And the bags are piled up outside a pharmacy, where people are going to get their medication. It's not right," said Dore, 61. "It has been there for weeks and it's getting higher.

"What worries me most is the sickness from the rubbish. My daughter doesn't want to bring her children here, she doesn't want them to catch the germs."

Yesterday also marked the day when council tax in the city rose by 7.5%, a year after it rose by 10% in the aftermath of the city council declaring itself effectively bankrupt in 2023.