Ministers are under pressure to call an emergency Cobra meeting and send in private waste firms to break a bin strike that has left rubbish piling up in Birmingham’s streets.
The Tories are demanding action from Communities Secretary Angela Rayner over the deepening industrial confrontation that has left extensive parts of England’s second city looking like bomb sites.
Rubbish has been stacking up in the streets of Birmingham after members of the Unite union started their all-out strike.
But talks on Thursday aimed at resolving the long-running walkout this week failed to break the deadlocked wage dispute with the bankrupt formerly Labour-run city council.
The city is becoming more and more afflicted by big rats who eat the contents of bags, and tonnes of rubbish have gone uncollected.
The Conservatives have written to Ms Rayner, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, calling on her to take action to resolve the walkout.
Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Alex Burghart and Shadow Communities Secretary Kevin Hollinrake urged the government to address the disagreement by holding a high-level Cobra meeting in their letter.
This would ‘ensure that there is a coordinated response between national and local government, and involving those professionals from across public health, civil contingencies and emergency services,’ they said.
The two senior Tories also called on the Government to ‘send in private sector rubbish collectors to bust the local authority refuse service strikes’.
‘Waste collection is a fundamental service that residents expect councils to deliver,’ they wrote.
‘While it is shocking for residents to witness rubbish accumulating in their streets, it comes as no surprise to those who have scrutinised Labour’s governance of Birmingham since 2012.
‘Labour’s persistent failure to manage the city effectively has resulted in higher council tax, economic mismanagement, and now even the collapse of basic services, putting residents at risk.’
Almost 400 council bin employees in Birmingham started indefinite strike action last week as part of a row over jobs and pay.
The union has declared any possibility of a breakthrough was being ‘hobbled’ by commissioners who were drafted in to assist with the council’s finances.
They were sent in by the Government after the local authority effectively declared bankruptcy.
The Conservatives said the commissioners should be ordered to ‘cut the pay of local councillors and redistribute the funding to local services such as contracting external refuse collection agencies’.
The Conservatives also accused Labour of not having intervened because of its association with Unite.
Its general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘The council’s public statements about wanting to end this dispute are directly at odds with its sluggish approach to negotiations.
‘The lack of clear answers during talks, and the long periods between meetings make it seem like the council can’t call its own shots.
‘Are the council’s decision-making abilities being hobbled by unelected commissioners?
‘If that’s the case, the council needs to be honest with its workers and the public and tell them exactly what decisions it can and cannot make without the commissioners’ permission.’
Speaking in the House of Commons last week, environment minister Mary Creagh said resolving the strikes is ‘a matter to the council’.
Both sides in the dispute ‘need to get round the table and sort this out for the benefit of the people of Birmingham’, the minister added.
It didn’t take long for Labour to turn the UK back into how it was in the 70s. For all those who missed it, welcome back to 1974.
But don’t fret folks, the brainiac Angela Rayner is on the case. Don’t worry, she’ll sort it all out!
That was sarcasm by the way because these days sarcasm is all we’ve got, but we haven’t seen nothing yet. This is just the beginning, and I do feel for my children and their children because they will inherit this mess.
The thing is if you invite the third world, you become the third world!
I am disgusted and astounded by what I see. It’s like living in New Delhi. It is appalling, there are vermin everywhere – next, there will be disease. Quite frankly, I could weep for this country, and Angela Rayner can just about work out how to put her own rubbish out, let alone fix any other problem.
Sack the lot of them, they don’t deserve employment, and Rayner can go as well. She’s completely out of depth to be an MP.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 