Our street is overrun with huge rats feasting off rotting food. Now binmen have gone on strike

Grim video shows rubbish piled high on the streets of Birmingham the day before binmen stage an all-out strike.

Locals say swathes of Sparkhill, Aston, Balsall Heath and Selly Park, are already being overrun by rats feasting off rubbish and rotting food.

One Tariq Mohammed, 70, who lives in Sparkhill, said: “Rubbish is always here. “I have not seen any rubbish being collected for months and people just come and throw their rubbish on the street. The smell is so bad and the rats – as big as cats - are everywhere but what can we do."

Resident Hawida Osman, 51, said: “It’s terrible. I have seen rats coming in my house from here. “The area is already dirty and the piles of uncollected rubbish is just making the situation worse. There are already piles of rubbish everywhere but soon it will be like a mountain unless the council do something.”

Unite regional officer Zoe Mayou said: “This dispute will not end until our members are given cast iron guarantees about where the service is headed and how they will be treated within it.”The city council said it was proposing changes which would only affect 17 people and they face a pay cut of £6,000.It also said it had offered those workers promotions and training to help them improve their pay, plus "attractive" voluntary redundancy packages.

Members of trade union Unite have staged a series of one-day walkouts since January with all-out strike action due to start on Tuesday (11/3).

Workers are furious over proposals to scrap a job role affecting 170 binmen which amounts to a pay cut of around £8,000.

Binmen also object to claims Birmingham City Council used agency staff to fill the gaps left by the striking workers.

Around 350 binmen will begin an indefinite all-out strike on Tuesday with plans to continue industrial action into the summer.

More than 4,000 desperate residents have signed an online petition calling the Labour-run city council to resolve the dispute.