Birmingham is drowning in the garbage. Residents complain of great rats on the streets

They bite the wires in cars, sit on the window sills and enter their homes, and those who try to take food for them – they chase away. – We have more and more rats and mice here. People say that they even have them at home, enter everywhere – says a resident of Birmingham, Naim Khan.

Some are to be the size of cats, because for six weeks on the streets of Birmingham they can enjoy an uninterrupted feast. – I understand the frustration of waste export employees, but this is not fair to the rest of us – says the resident of Birmingham.

Problems with garbage collection on the streets of the second largest city in Great Britain have been going on since the beginning of the year, but on March 11 the situation escalated. Members of the Union trade union announced a total, indefinite strike, because talks with the city council about the situation of waste export employees did not bring any results.

On April 14, it was voted on the conclusion of a possible agreement between the parties, but the Unite trade union overwhelming majority rejected the city's offer, so the protest continues, and the piles of garbage on the streets of Birmingham are getting higher.

– The Council presented a proposal that would lead to a sharp drop in wages for our people. The situation is indeed restless, but what about the concern of employees who do not know what to pay rent and a mortgage for – emphasizes she Kasab from the Union trade union.

The dispute between the city council and trade unionists is primarily about plans to liquidate some positions, and thus wage reductions. The trade union calculates that they may affect about 150 employees. The city replies that the changes affect 17 employees and alternative jobs have already been offered. Despite this, over 300 waste export employees stopped coming to work.

– Just pay them. They deserve salary because their work is not easy – comments Bashkan Khan, a resident of Birmingham.

During the strike, over 17,000 tons of unwashed garbage gathered in the city. At the end of March, the city council announced a state of a serious incident, which made additional garbage trucks to the street. Neighboring local governments and private companies also come to the rescue, and the inhabitants themselves try to export waste to the collection points.

This does not solve the problem, and the fears of deteriorating hygiene conditions are expressed by subsequent politicians. Not only in Birmingham, but also in London. – I wrote to the city council, reporting my fears about public health. People send me photos of cockroach and rats. It can't be like that – says Preet Kaur Gill, a British parliamentarian.

Last week, a man appeared at the city council meeting in a shine, who thanked the officials for supporting the rodent population and asked when they would cope with the crisis.

The crisis is not complained by companies dealing with deratization and combating pests, because the number of orders increased by up to 60 percent and do not develop with catching rats in private homes, let alone cleaning the streets of these rodents.

– Even if we remove everything from here, the problem will still exist. Rats know that there was food here, so they will come back, and when they don't find it here, they can start looking for food in nearby houses – notes Lisa Dowd from Sky News.

According to Sky News, the cost of removing piles of garbage from Birmingham streets can exceed up to 200 million pounds, and the bags will arrive every day, because the PAT between the city council and trade unionists continues.