'THE BIN BAGS WILL JUST PILE UP AGAIN - WE'RE USED TO IT'

BIRMINGHAM residents are still being forced to endure living just metres away from heaps of rubbish despite the clean-up of the city.

- ALEXANDER BROCK News Reporter

Communities across Brum had been previously blighted by enormous piles of bin bags due to the industrial action, which was triggered by a dispute between the council and Unite the union.

Since the city council declared a major incident towards the end of March, positive progress has been made and, according to a government minister, around 26,000 tonnes of excess waste has now been cleared.

But a trip to Selly Park in south Birmingham this week underscored how the misery caused by the bleak situation is not over just yet.

For the residents living in Kitchener Road, there was a sense of relief around two weeks ago when a huge mountain of waste on a street corner was finally cleared.

But two separate heaps of rubbish and an eye-watering stench greeted me when I returned to the road on a warm and sunny Thursday afternoon, April 24.