Bin strikes Tale of two cities as 'posh areas get cleaned up first'

It's very frustrating that the posh areas get cleared and we're just left, very frustrating but we expect it," said Peter Thomas, standing outside his home in the Birmingham district of Ladywood, against a backdrop of overflowing bins.

- Mimi Ibrahim

The gap between the wealthy and deprived parts of the city has been noticeable since the bin strikes began last month. Thomas's area was not included in the clear-up operations and residents are frustrated.

His neighbour, Gloria Charles, 70, who has lived in her home for more than 30 years, said she was embarrassed by the uncollected rubbish. "We do take pride in our little road, we try to keep it as clean as possible. The way it is now, do you invite anybody down here? I don't want anybody to come and see me. Not with a place like this. It's embarrassing," she said.

"I've been everywhere, just to see if anybody's been collected around this area and nobody has been collected, so I don't know why we have been targeted for non-collection."

Students living near Edgbaston reservoir said a lack of wheelie bins had made the situation worse, despite having had a recent bin collection. Some of those who do have wheelie bins have added padlocks to deter neighbours from using their bins.