A Tory Birmingham Councillor has issued a desperate plea ahead of the May elections, calling on voters to allow the Conservatives to get “stuck in” and reverse the ongoing bin strikes.
Speaking to GB News, Sutton Reddicap Councillor Richard Parkin said residents are “beleaguered, worn out, drained, fed up, frustrated and angry” over the strikes.
Demonstrations by refuse workers are entering their second year after the Labour-run council told employees their roles were at risk of an £8,000 pay cut, due to a change in the grading system.
As the workers continue to walk out over the cuts, Birmingham City Council has spent around £1.1million a month on agency staff to help clear the mounting bin waste.
Outlining the state of the situation in the city, Mr Parkin told GB News: “We’re now in the second year, it’s been over 12 months of bin strikes, and residents are beleaguered, worn out, drained, fed up, frustrated and angry.
“As a local councillor, I dread Tuesdays because Tuesday is collection day in my ward, and I’ll get a list of roads, schools, and businesses that haven’t had their bins collected. This has been going on for over a year now, and at the moment, unfortunately, there doesn’t look like there’s going to be an end in sight.”
Revealing that the council are “no longer talking” to the Unite Union, he added: “Birmingham City Council are no longer talking to the union, and it is not going to resolve the problem, they can’t keep ignoring it.
“It won’t go away, they need to sit down around the table with the union and they need to thrash out a deal because otherwise we could be talking in 12 months time again, going into another year of the bin strikes.”
Councillor Richard Parkin has called for the Tories to take over Birmingham Council over the bin strikes
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GB NEWS
Reacting to locals vowing to boycott paying their council tax as a result of the strikes, Mr Parkin said: “Emptying bins is the most basic of council services. Getting the bins emptied once a week is not a lot to ask for, is it? So I can understand why some residents are reaching the point where they don’t feel obliged to pay their council tax.
“Obviously, as a councillor, I would never endorse that because that’s not something that I would support, but I appreciate and understand why people are so angry and fed up about it.”
Revealing what “worries him the most” as a fourth-generation Birmingham local, Mr Parkin admitted: “I have situations where the local schools haven’t been collected for three or four weeks. Last week there were flats in my ward that hadn’t had a collection for three months, and the photographs of the rubbish were appalling.
“And the problem is, the more publicity that goes out on this, the more damage it gives to Birmingham’s reputation.
“Around the world now, Birmingham is associated with rats as big as cats, and the damage to our international reputation is what worries me the most, because that’s going to take some time to recover. And while the strike continues, that’s still a big problem.”
Birmingham’s refuse workers have been striking for more than nine months
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GB NEWSHe added: “I think it’s such a shame – I’m a really I’m a proud Brummie, I’m a fourth-generation Birmingham person. My family goes back a hundred years in this city, and I despair at the damage this is doing to our city.
“The bin strike has got to end because the longer it goes on, the more challenging it’s going to be for us to get this reputation back.”
Calling on Birmingham voters to throw their support behind the Conservatives to tackle the issue, Mr Parkin told GB News: “Basically the long and short of it is the only way I can see around this at the moment is that the local elections are coming up in May, and you would expect me to say this anyway, but as local Conservatives, we want to roll our sleeves up and get stuck in and deliver the change that Birmingham desperately needs.
“We will continue as local Conservatives to fight for the seats in Birmingham City Council, because the only way we’re going to deliver change is if we have local Conservatives running the council.
Mr Parkin told GB News that the only way to resolve the issue if if the ‘Tories are running the council’
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GB NEWS
“We’ve got a lot of very experienced councillors here in Birmingham, over 20 Conservative councillors, and I think that we offer the best chance for the people of Birmingham in May.”
Councillor John Cotton, leader of Birmingham City Council, said: “It’s regrettable that we have had to take this step, but we cannot tolerate a situation that is causing harm and distress to communities across Birmingham.
“I respect the right to strike and protest, however actions on the picket line must be lawful and sadly the behaviour of some now means we are seeing a significant impact on residents and the city’s environment.
“Unless we declare a major incident and deploy the waste service’s contingency plan, then we would be unable to clear the backlog of waste on the streets or improve the frequency of collections.
“I want to thank residents for their continued patience under difficult circumstances and the community groups who have been working hard within their communities to help with clear-up.
“I would reiterate that we have made a fair and reasonable offer to our workers which means none of them have to lose any money and I would urge Unite to reconsider their position.”