A FESTERING mountain of rubbish revived memories of the Winter of Discontent yesterday — as a bin strike’s fourth week caused misery for a city’s residents.
Shocking images showed at a temporary collection point in Tyseley, Birmingham.
Up to 17,000 tons of waste have gone uncollected in the city since more than 350 refuse workers walked out on March 11 over wage cuts.
The Unite union says about 150 members will be £8,000 worse off. On Monday the council — which disputes the figures — and began using waste lorries under a contingency plan.
But bosses warned it will take weeks to clear the streets as the backlog piles up.
Locals have reported seeing swarming through the waste, in scenes reminiscent of the Seventies’ strikes.
Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers — including binmen downed tools all over Britain in protest over their wage rises being capped while inflation soared.
The industrial action began in September 1978, ending only in the following February — after the nation’s coldest winter for 16 years.
Yesterday, after residents were informed of the temporary collection point in a car park, a sea of filth had piled up by 7.30am.
Some people got up before dawn with others forced to bring along 20 black bags in one go.
Tyseley resident Danny Carter, 33, said of the heap: “It just makes you ashamed to be a Brummie right now, to be honest.
“It looks like those giant rubbish mountains they get in places like Mumbai.
“People have just seen the lorries were coming and used it as a chance to fly-tip. People are fed up, but this is disgusting.”;
Meanwhile, 55-year-old agency worker Mohammed blasted contingency plans for being unhygienic.
He noted: “There’s a nursery there for the kids and a community centre there. They should’ve sent security and secured the site.”;
He continued: “I’ve lived here 40 years and I’ve never seen the area this bad. I had about 20 bags in my garden, piled up, smelling up the place.”;
Council environment chief Majid Mahmood said some areas had gone without bin collections for up to seven weeks.
He said it will take between two and four weeks for some 90 contingency trucks to get collections back to normal.
But another three to four weeks will be needed after that for a clean-up.
