A major clear up of the backlog of uncollected rubbish bins and bags will not reach every part of the city for a full SIX WEEKS after the start of the strike.

The new date – Friday, August 11 – has prompted fresh calls for council leader John Clancy to either get a grip on the problem or resign.

The city’s bins service was reorganised last week to blitz each part of the city in turn with a wholesale clear up of all black bags, wheelie bins and recycling.

And the council’s Labour leader John Clancy, speaking last Wednesday, promised that by the middle of this week people would notice a ‘significant difference’ on the streets .

He had been accused by members of a city watchdog committee of a lack of urgency to deal with the crisis of thousands of tonnes of rubbish left festering on roadsides.

Official figures issued today revealed that binmen have visited just 119,424 properties – about a third of the city’s 400,000 homes.

Council bins boss Jacqui Kennedy, in an email to councillors, blamed the increase in strike action, from two to three hours a day, for slower progress on the clean up.

Cllr Jon Hunt in Turnberry Road, Great Barr

Lib Dem leader Cllr Jon Hunt said: “It would appear that most of the city is not seeing any significant difference. Cllr Clancy has misled the public and should resign.

“On the side roads huge piles of black bags are accumulating while main roads are swept clean for the sake of VIPs.”

He said parts of his Perry Barr ward, on the route between Alexander Stadium where American athletes are training and their city centre hotels, have been cleaned up while others have not.

“It is reminiscent of painting the

grass green when Bill Clinton came

,” he added referring to the 1998 G8 world leaders summit in Birmingham.

The council responded that it has kept several main routes, including the A34 through Perry Barr, clear as they are particularly prone to spillage problems caused by heavy traffic.

In an open letter Cllr Hunt is now calling on Cllr Clancy to consider his position.

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Meanwhile Conservative bins spokeswoman Deirdre Alden has called on council leader John Clancy to take charge of the crisis and lead the negotiations with the unions.

She said: “It is clear that the council has not only failed to solve the bin crisis caused by their mismanagement but also, having caused the mess, failed to keep the city clean and safe.

"The Labour administration has shown they can’t manage the service properly it desperately needs the Council Leader to take charge of the situation and get it resolved”.

Cllr Clancy has declined to comment. However a council source said: “I would say cleaning a third of the city’s streets is making a significant difference. Unfortunately you have to start and finish somewhere and Perry Barr has not yet been cleared.”