Birmingham bins champions are now embedded in the city’s three largest waste collection depots to ensure that complaints are tackled.

The staff, from the council’s own call centre, have been sent to the tips at Holford Drive Perry Barr, Lifford Lane Kings Norton and Redfern Road in Tyseley to flag up ongoing problems with missed collections and missing wheelie bins.

Call centre operators dealt with 169,473 calls about bins and fly-tipping during the year to April - which included the period of the three month bin strike and heavy snow in December.

But there are concerns that messages and complaints have not been acted on after being sent to the depots, so now the services have teamed up to share more information.

Councillor Deirdre Alden pictured on Gillot Road, Edgbaston which has problem with wheelie bins
Councillor Deirdre Alden pictured on Gillot Road, Edgbaston which has problem with wheelie bins

Cllr Deirdre Alden (Cons, Edgbaston) told colleagues on the council’s main scrutiny committee that she is routinely contacted by residents who have raised missed bin collections on multiple occasions, but they are not being picked up.

“I’ve had people saying to me ‘I called six times and have still got waste outside my house’.”

She said it was always the same areas being missed, such as cul-de-sacs, corner houses and homes which are isolated between commercial properties.

“The depots know the homes which always get left,” she added.

The waste collection department is still undergoing a major overhaul in the light of last summer’s devastating bin strike.

Assistant director of customer service Paula Buckley said that the call centre is working closely with the bins service to address problems - including sending the ‘customer service resolution champions’ to work at the depots.

She said: “We are getting much more detailed information about people who are calling us back to report that their bin’s not been collected.”

A report to the committee further explained: “This closer working has proved to be a success with staff able to escalate repeat enquires immediately in the depot and provide feedback to the contact centre and citizens on issues in a timelier manner.

“This means that there is improved resolution and access to up to date information for escalated citizen enquires which are dealt with by the resolution champions.”

She added that during the strike they found they were dealing with more and more complaints on twitter and social media which lessened pressures on the telephone call centre service.

Labour council leader Ian Ward has made solving the bin service problems a priority following the May election.