‘Squeaky Blinders’: How rats bigger than cats are running riot in UK’s Birmingham

Rats that are “the size of cats” have been spotted on the streets of Britain’s second-largest city as bin bags pile up.

In **Birmingham** , a strong and unpleasant smell has taken over parts of the city, as waste spills out of black bags left uncollected for days.

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The **mounting waste** has increased growing fears over public health, including rats drawn to the heaps of bin bags lining residential streets.

The rat problem has grown so severe that locals have nicknamed the rodents the ‘Squeaky Blinders,’ a nod to the infamous Peaky Blinders gang of the late 1800s, whose story inspired the BBC series of the same name.

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In this report, we look at what’s behind Birmingham’s worsening waste problem, how locals are being affected, and what steps the authorities are taking to get things under control.

Pungent smell, rats in the open: What’s going on in Birmingham?

People in Birmingham are struggling to deal with nearly 17,000 tonnes of rubbish that has accumulated across the city.

What led to this?

Simply put, the mess is a result of a strike by Birmingham’s waste collectors over a pay dispute. For weeks now, some of the city’s 1.2 million residents have gone without any bin collection.

The standoff began after a row between the council and the workers’ union over the scrapping of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role. The union believes the decision will result in pay cuts.

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Roughly 400 refuse workers are on strike in protest against the removal of that role from council services.

Unite, the union representing them, said this change blocks career progression and effectively demotes some employees, CNN reported. In the worst cases, workers could lose up to £8,000 a year (nearly Rs 8.84 lakh), the union claimed.

The strike, which began in phases, turned into an indefinite one in early March. Only a fraction of the usual workforce and some agency crews are currently on the job. The council said less than half of the city’s rubbish trucks are running.

Wayne Bishop, a 59-year-old driver and union member, told AFP that under the restructuring, he would lose his job and be down around 600 euros a month. He said the work was demanding and should be paid fairly.

“We can’t afford that for our toil,” he said. “We go out all weathers, we was out in Covid, we just can’t afford to lose that with the cost of living going up.”

On Friday, Downing Street urged Unite to “drop their opposition” to the proposed changes. But the union’s leadership instead asked ministers to “get the decision-makers in a room”.

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How it is affecting the residents

Residents have been turning up in cars packed with black bags of waste, eager to get rid of them. People have been spotted hurrying down streets, arms full of bin bags, towards collection wagons.

Some have even been seen dashing along roads pushing their wheelie bins, keen to empty them. Cars filled with rubbish have been parked across neighbourhoods as police urged people not to dump waste on the streets, BBC reported.

“It’s not something you want to be walking out your house to – it’s just a constant reminder that we’re just living in rubbish,” a 21-year-old student told The Independent.

With the rubbish piling up, rats have taken over parts of the city. Locals say rodents are making their way into homes and cars, chewing through belongings and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

It took Labour less than a year to turn Britains second Largest City Birmingham into a 3rd World rat infested slum.

Even the people tasked with sorting the issue are afraid of them, there’s so many & they’ve grown so big. pic.twitter.com/5dh0dxn9dS

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) April 5, 2025

Martin Curry, who has been dubbed the “rat king”, runs MC Environmental Pest Control and has been leading efforts to tackle the rodent issue while streets remain cluttered with refuse.

He told The Guardian, “Rats all have their own personal tastes but if food is scarce they’ll eat anything.”

“I’m getting a lot more callouts for rats especially,” he told the UK daily.

“There’s rubbish everywhere, rats everywhere … (they’re) bigger than cats,” one passer-by told CNN. “This is Britain. This is 2025. What’s going on?”

A resident from Anderton Park Road told BBC, “People who aren’t residents are parking up and leaving rubbish outside of my house.”

“It was very noisy with people honking, it wouldn’t be a problem if they were doing it in a decent way but the people who came here didn’t care."

What is the administration doing?

Birmingham City Council has declared a major incident in response to the strike, stating it was unable to implement its backup plan as striking workers were blocking bin lorries at picket lines, creating a potential public health risk.

By declaring a major incident, the council can now request assistance from nearby councils and the government, and scale up efforts to clean the streets and clear fly-tipping, The Guardian reported.

The volume of uncollected waste in the city has increased sharply – from 483 tonnes daily during the week of March 10 to nearly 900 tonnes a day in the week of March 24.

Talks between Unite and the Labour-run council have broken down in recent weeks.

The council has argued that the WRCO role does not exist in other local authorities and retaining it could lead to a “huge future equal pay liability”.

Notably, the Birmingham City Council declared bankruptcy in 2023, primarily due to an equal pay bill.

Majid Mahmood, the cabinet member for environment and transport, said last week the council was prepared to work tirelessly to settle the issue, having already tabled a “fair and reasonable” offer to the workers involved.

With inputs from agencies