THE whiff of a row is brewing in Birmingham – over uncollected rubbish.
Up to 70 bin bags torn apart by scavenging animals and infested with maggots have been left uncollected for weeks by binmen in Aston.
Residents on Clifton Close and Brooklyn Avenue said they had repeatedly complained to Birmingham City Council about irregular rubbish collections for five years.
Each time the rubbish is collected, but unresolved issues about residents’ parking mean the bags periodically pile up again.
Father-of-two Saleh Islam, who spoke on behalf of his mother Hushna Begum, aged 57, estimated that 50 bags had piled up.
The teacher said: “The bags are stacking up in front of houses and communal areas.
“The smell is foul, you cannot walk past without holding your nose. Cats and magpies rip into the bag as and you can see maggots.”
Mr Islam said his sister had contacted the council which said there was a problem with residents cars blocking access. “This has been happening since 2006 and I have had two daughters since then,” he said.
“The council does an emergency collection, apologises, the site manager makes contact and comes to do a site survey, then it stops for a while and starts again.
“It is embarrassing and there is a great danger of health problems with a sight like this on your door step, especially with children playing during the summer holidays. We would like a solution to the problem, which would involve relocating the spot for refuse collections and making sure there are no risks to anyone.”
Tipu Uddin, aged 40, who lives on Brooklyn Avenue, said he thought there up to 80 bags were piling up outside his door.
Mr Uddin, a restaurant worker, said: “It’s been three weeks. I called the environmental health department and they said there were too many cars to make a collection.
“It’s so smelly. I have five children and they can’t play out.
“It’s unbelievable.”
A council spokesman said: “Lorries have had a problem accessing the roads due to parking congestion.
“We used a smaller vehicle known as an alleycat to collect from Clifton Close on Friday and we were returning to Brooklyn Avenue yesterday.
“We are looking to introduce regular alleycat rounds to collect from these roads.”
