One city's battle against ‘cat-sized' rats while bin workers go on strike

Yahoo

28-02-2025

Naida Bi and her husband, Ali, have spent thousands of pounds repairing the damage that rats have caused to their back garden in Ward End, Birmingham – most recently £9,000 on a new garden shed, as the gigantic rats they see running around in broad daylight gnawed through the wood of their previous one and built a nest underneath it.
'They're massive, even my cat is scared of them,' says Naida, 48. 'My husband had to block off the fence as they ate through it. Small rat traps won't do, so I had to buy cages off Amazon.' She has caught three rats in the cages already.
There has been a long-term rat problem here in Stechford and Ward End, two areas to the east of the city. Both rank within the top 10 per cent of deprivation nationally, according to council data. Last year, Birmingham City Council introduced a £24 surcharge for visits from pest controllers – a so-called 'rat tax'. But residents say a recent stand-off between striking refuse collectors and the Labour-run council, which is in financial crisis after effectively declaring itself bankrupt in September 2023, has made matters far worse. So too has a vast HS2 construction site just across the road.
The result has been an influx of vermin. Even an unseasonably sunny day can't distract from the grim scene in Ward End. The pavements on Drews Lane, the road between the HS2 site and the rest of the neighbourhood, are an assault course of black bin bags, piles of cardboard pizza boxes, abandoned plastic bottles and other detritus. At night, residents say they are crawling with rats. Kim Blakeman, who has lived on Drews Lane for 16 years, said the rodents are the size of cats. '[They] are huge – they are like small cats and their tails are really chunky,' she told the BBC. Some claim their bins have not been collected since January.
This has inevitably also led to an increase in fly-tipping. The grassy patch of land next to Naida and Ali's home is carpeted with rubbish. Ali points out holes in his garden fence that the rats have gnawed through, and the rat droppings littering his lawn.
After a series of one-day strikes in January and February, the Unite union announced this week that Birmingham bin collectors would begin indefinite strike action on March 11. The 'all-out strike' over pay and working conditions, plus the scrapping of a 'waste collection and recycling officer role', will involve more than 350 refuse collectors. The council said the ongoing strike would cause further disruption to residents, even though it has made Unite a 'fair and reasonable offer'.
What is clear is, in the meantime, the service is collapsing. The Bi family claims that their bins have not been collected in three weeks and their recycling in six. 'It has got so bad that it's spreading all over the street,' says Naida. 'When it's windy, the bins open up and everything flies into the road.' A neighbour called Mizan, 52, has 'emailed the council, emailed the housing association… I complain and they clear it up a bit, but people continue fly-tipping, and it's back to square one,' he says. 'We have rats running around, and there are still rats in [our garden.]'
Some houses on the neighbouring road have bin bags piled in heaps, their sides split and their contents lying on the street, making it impossible for anyone with a pram or mobility scooter to navigate. On one shared driveway, five overflowing bins sit surrounded by open bags of rubbish.
The super-sized rats have even been known to eat through car wiring. Adam, 20, who lives with his parents in the area, says 'the rats bite everything, leave droppings everywhere, it's just disgusting'. Adam's car is in the driveway with its bonnet up – this morning he discovered that it won't start. He blames the rats. 'Sometimes I park up in the evenings and hear loads of them scurrying in the bins,' he says.
Adam can't even remember the last time their bins were collected. Another resident, who didn't want to be named, claims she was told her bins hadn't been emptied because refuse workers were 'blocked' by traffic from the construction site; she believes they are just 'refusing' to collect it. 'It's ridiculous,' she says. 'We pay our council tax for this to be done, and they're not even doing it. Frankly, everyone in the council should be sacked.'
Gerry Moynihan, a resident of nearby Bordesley Green, has taken to documenting the impact of Birmingham's bin strikes online. The videos he posts on X, taken from across the city, show vast mounds of fly-tipped furniture and fridges, bin bags and loose waste. 'For the council, it's not costing them anything for the rubbish to sit here. And prosecuting is expensive for them,' he told one newspaper. In some cases, he says, the council has put safety barriers around piles of rubbish rather than removing it.
Neighbourhood Facebook groups are full of people offering discounted rubbish collection services, and local pest control companies have seen a marked increase in enquiries. William Timms, of WJ Pest Solutions, says: 'The calls have gone up 75 per cent, it's unbelievable. They've got rats outside, rats in their gardens, rats gaining access to kitchens.'
Sharon Nichol of Birmingham Pest Control says: 'We have had to order in new bait stations because so many are out and we've run low. The bin strikes are ongoing, so there's been plenty of food for them.'
The only saving grace is, in cold weather, there's not too much of a smell. If the rubbish piles up for three more months – a Unite representative said the union could not rule out the possibility of strike action lasting into the summer – imagine the stench.
A spokesman for Birmingham City Council comments: 'While we acknowledge that industrial action is causing missed bin collections across the city, we continue to ensure every household in the city receives at least one collection per week at this time. If a reasonable amount of side waste is presented, this will also be collected, as long as it is bagged or bundled.
'We would like to thank residents for their understanding and patience during this period of industrial action. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.
'The council continues to treat for rats for a contributory fee; this is far less than the cost to deliver the service and that charged by some neighbouring local authorities. People can also purchase and treat themselves, as supplies are readily available in shops and online.'
An HS2 spokesman says: 'The health and safety of our workforce and the public is HS2's number-one priority. As part of our ongoing work to actively support the local community around the site, the team has recently cleared fly-tipped rubbish and carried out regular litter picks in the local area.'
While there are other contributing factors, Naida places the blame for the bin crisis squarely at the council's door. 'They're really bad, to be honest with you,' she says. She has lived in the area for more than 20 years, has carefully tended to her home and garden, and now she is living amid mountains of rubbish. 'It's everywhere,' she says. 'It's just horrible.'
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