How Birmingham bin strike exposes the divide between rich and poor

On the same day that the streets of Balsall Heath were being overwhelmed with rubbish, so much that it was hard in places to walk down the street, a few miles away in wealthy Harborne, wheelie bins stood neatly waiting for collection with no sign of any additional waste.

Talks to end the bin strike in Birmingham will not resume until next week, after the Unite union and the city council failed to reach an agreement on Wednesday.

Members of Unite began staging one-day walkouts in January after being told some workers would be downgraded and have their pay cut.

The action escalated on 11 March, when more than 300 workers began an all-out strike.

Unite said that if the council was prepared to make a firm offer of a one-off payment and guaranteed that there would not be any further pay cuts, its members would go back to work.