Bin collections being missed over problems with blocked streets

City council officials and councillors made the claim as it emerged four roads a day were missed out on average.

The council has been discussing the future of its waste service and highlighted access as one of its problems.

It included an situation where a resident used his car to intentionally block a bin lorry to stop it getting down his road.

The council is not entirely sure why the resident took the extreme action in Yardley.

But it is speculated he was perhaps annoyed at the time the bin wagon arrived on his street and wanted to force the crew to return later.

Bin chiefs were keen to emphasise the issues they encounter on a daily basis which can disrupt collections.

Staff sickness and vehicle breakdowns are common problems but access issues are also a prominent factor, particularly when people park inconsiderately on narrow and congested streets.

Crews put notices on cars but do not report them to West Midlands Police.

The council collects waste from around 440,950 properties a week with a current completion rate of 99.7 per cent – although bosses admitted even that remaining 0.3 per cent amounted to hundreds of homes being missed.

City council cabinet member, Councillor John O’Shea, said: “We miss bin collections for a lot of reasons. We still have problems with people parking their cars inconveniently.

“As part of the new waste fleet purchasing we are buying different vehicles which are more manoeuvrable.”

Last year the council approved a £12m investment to replace hundreds of its ageing waste vehicles over three years. I

n doing so they will also look to re-profile the fleet by acquiring more of the smaller wagons which are better suited to navigating narrow streets.

Darren Share, assistant council director , added: “It’s getting into the context of where we are at the moment with 75,000 collections a day and we are missing very, very few out of that 70-odd thousand."