Birmingham a bombsite again as 'city's busiest rat man' shares garbage nightmare

EXCLUSIVE: ONE PARTICULAR STREET IN BIRMINGHAM SEES PILES OF PUTRID RUBBISH STACKED UP AS TALL AS A HUMAN, WITH MOST OF THEM GNAWED THROUGH BY RATS WHICH ARE GETTING 'BIGGER'

23:53, 29 May 2025 As the Birmingham bin strike approaches its 12th week, garbage on the streets has built up to “diabolical” levels. And with the huge amounts of waste littering the city’s

streets comes rats – lots of them. William Timms, who goes by the moniker Rat Man of Birmingham, has been helping tackle the rodent issue since the strikes began on March 11. In a video

taken today (May 29) at midday and shared exclusively with the Daily Star, Timms snapped a street which had huge amounts of partially-emptied bin bags strewn on the pavement. “Look at this,”

WJ Pest Solutions boss Timms can be heard as the camera pans across what appears to be Clarence Avenue in the Handsworth District of Birmingham. “Absolutely diabolical. Look at it.” In the

video, the walkway is completely impassable because of the amount of litter, piled up at times higher than an average adult stands. Towards the end of the avenue, the mountain of rubbish

spills into the middle of the road, forcing cars to park at awkward angles to accommodate. The entire scene is, as Timms, puts it “a joke. Pure laziness”. But perhaps the most worrying

aspect of the view on Clarence Avenue, is that most of the thin-black plastic that clads the rubbish has been eaten away and gnawed into by rats. Instead of a sea of black, it’s a sea of

rotting food – a perfect environment for rats, ones which are getting “bigger and bigger”. Timms recently told this publication: “It's because of the protein, the rubbish that people

are throwing out there’s everything in there, which is excellent for a rat. “I mean you’ve got peoples’ old gym stuff, like protein, whey protein, and all that. Rats are eating that and

they’re just getting bigger.” No headway has been made this week in the ongoing discussions between Birmingham City Council and Unite, the trade union representing the striking binmen of

Birmingham, reports Birmingham Live. Unite was braced to put a new pay proposal, expected via ACAS – the mediation body – to its members yesterday, Tuesday, May 27, for their consideration.

Article continues below However, the anticipated offer failed to materialise, and now an update is not likely until Friday, May 30, at the soonest. The unbroken industrial action, sparked by

wage and work condition disputes, commenced on March 11. Subsequently, the city council announced a 'major incident' subsequent to the pileup of 17,000 tonnes of uncollected

refuse on Birmingham's thoroughfares. A dedicated effort is currently underway to dispose of over 12,000 tonnes of accumulated rubbish, reports Birmingham Live.