City council bosses have REFUSED to say where emergency rubbish bin collections are taking place - because they fear a rise in ‘tipping tourism’.
It is the start of the final week of the council’s three week ward-by-ward blitz of the city designed to clear a huge backlog of sacks and overstuffed wheelie bins on our streets.
But despite repeated requests for details of when and where bin collections will be, council bosses have steadfastly refused to issue the information.
The reason, according to council sources, is they fear people known as ‘tipping tourists’ would drive extra rubbish into areas being targeted and make the clean up much harder.
There is also a fear that, with three hours of strike action a day and a work to rule, there could be delays and they may not be able to complete a clean up on time.
So instead they are advising people to leave uncollected bins and bags by the roadside each day until the clean up crew arrives - and they aim to ensure that every street in the city has been cleared by August 11 .
They have so far cleared more than 60 per cent of the backlog - leaving about a dozen of the city's 40 wards without a proper collection since strike action began.
On Friday it emerged that the council and unions were finally making progress in negotiations - but there has been no update since then.
Meanwhile, Sutton Coldfield residents are to get special cardboard and paper recycling collections tomorrow following a tie up between the city council and private waste company Smurfit Kappa.
The deal comes in the midst of the ongoing bin strike which has seen parts of the city going without any refuse collections for weeks on end.
The council has also come under fire for mixing recycling with regular waste in a bid to get streets cleaned up fast.
The council is now urging residents in the Sutton Trinity ward, which covers the town centre and much of the area north of Reddicap Heath Road and south of Little Sutton Road, to leave their separate paper and cardboard pods by the roadside on Tuesday.
If there is rain then they can leave the pod inside the wheelie bin and collection crews will look for it.
The council is in the third week of its three-week recovery plan to clear up the backlog of waste built up since the strikes started on June 30.
A spokesman said: “As one of the wards visited early in the council’s three-week recovery plan (now into its third week), the local authority is mindful that waste and recycling will again be accumulating in the area – hence its selection for the pilot.”
If successful, more streets could get the extra paper and card collections later in the week.
