A call has been made for a 'radical' shake-up of Birmingham's bin service - including privatisation - after two strikes in as many years.
With agreed settlements to end the current bout of industrial dispute all but finalised , attention has shifted to the long-term future of the bin department as city council bosses revealed it is to be independently reviewed.
The exact scope of the review is to be agreed later this month but already a call to 'outsource' the waste service has been repeated.
Cllr Jon Hunt ( Perry Barr ), leader of the Liberal Democrat group, moved a motion for the council to 'market test' for the idea only to be voted down in the chamber last month.
But following weeks of further disruption due to workers striking over the 'secret payments' row, he says the case is more 'overwhelming'.
At Friday's cabinet meeting, which confirmed improved settlements worth £3,500 were to be made to striking workers, Cllr Hunt said: "The council needs to think radically about this because at the moment what we have is unsustainable.
"We have a situation where the unions can just keep coming back asking for more money on any dispute.
"The council seems incapable of winning any disputes which means the unions can keep coming back asking for more money, and the ramifications of that for the council are and have been over the years, horrendous.
"It will certainly be welcome to hear the leadership is willing to look at more radical options in terms of dealing with this situation."
Cllr Hunt's proposal would be to split the service into three contracts centred around the three largest council depots.
He argued in full council last month that in doing so the council would 'no longer be held hostage' by the unions.
It is not an idea the council's largest opposition, the Conservatives, are in favour of with shadow waste chief Cllr Deirdre Alden (Edgbaston) arguing the service's issues could not be solved by waving a 'magic wand'.
Talking about the independent review on Friday council leader Ian Ward (Lab, Shard End) said: “We all know the service needs to be better than it has been. This settlement will enable us to lay the foundations for improvement.
“The independent review will take a long, hard look at the service and come forward with recommendations that help us collectively achieve this.”
Outlining further measures at cabinet he added: "Clearly this has been the second industrial dispute on waste services in the space of two years, it is something we wish to avoid going forward.
"All sides are coming out of this dispute with a determination to work closely together to deliver the waste service in this city that the people of Birmingham want, but as part of us learning a few lessons from the events of recent weeks we will now carry out a review of our legal services department and we will set up an industrial relations team within the city council in order we build better industrial relations, going forward."
