Conservatives calls for Cobra meeting to deal with Birmingham bin strikes

The Tories also urged the Government to send in private sector binmen to ‘bust the local authority refuse service strikes’.

Overflowing bins in a Birmingham street — Overflowing bins in the Selly Oak area of Birmingham, amid an ongoing refuse workers’ strike (Jacob King/PA)

Ministers must call a Cobra meeting to deal with the ongoing bin strikes in Birmingham, the Conservatives said in a letter to Angela Rayner.

The Tories also urged the Government to send in private sector binmen to “bust the local authority refuse service strikes”.

Talks aimed at resolving the long-running strike this week failed to break the deadlocked pay dispute.

Rubbish has been piling up in the streets of Birmingham after members of the Unite union began their all-out strike.

Birmingham refuse workers strike — Furniture and uncollected refuse bags in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham (Jacob King/PA)

The union met with Birmingham City Council officials on Thursday following talks last week, but the strike continues.

The Conservatives have written to Deputy Prime Minister Ms Rayner, who is also the Communities Secretary, calling on her to take action to resolve the strike.

In their letter, shadow communities secretary Kevin Hollinrake and shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart, called on the Government to hold a high-level Cobra meeting to respond to the dispute.

This would “ensure that there is a co-ordinated 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”.

Birmingham City Council is currently being overseen by commissioners sent in by the Government after it 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 relationship with Unite.

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.