There will be no 'overnight fix' to Birmingham's under-performing bin service - the city's new boss has admitted during his first council grilling on the current problems.
Cllr John O'Shea (Lab, Acocks Green ), who was formally appointed the city council's cabinet member for Street Scene and Parks last month, fielded a number of complaints and demands for improvement during full council Question Time this week.
The exchanges threatened to boil over when he was pressed on his other time commitments working as constituency office manager for Jess Phillips MP (Lab, Yardley).
The debate came amid frequent reports and pictures of rubbish piling up on the streets of Birmingham and a revelation that up to 900 bins are being missed every day, despite the fact the latest workers' strike - over alleged 'secret payments' - ended in March.
Shadow bins chief Cllr Deirdre Alden (Cons, Edgbaston ) was the first to take aim at Cllr O'Shea.
She argued that the council could not wait until autumn for the outcome of an independent review of the service to make improvements claiming it was 'imploding now'.
"What are you going to do this summer?" Cllr Alden demanded to know.
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In reply Cllr O'Shea said: "We are not in a good position right now, I am under no illusions, the service is not delivering and we are not waiting for a report in the autumn to tell us what to do.
"I have met with the unions, I have met with the officers, there are commitments from the unions to work with us to improve this service."
Cllr O'Shea said there were lingering problems with the round structures and routes due to the change from a four to five-day working week last September - which come about as a result of the 2017 industrial dispute while its implementation became severely disrupted by the 2018/19 dispute.
He added: "I will not promise an overnight fix. The problems are quite serious and need to be resolved.
"I am confident they will be resolved and we will make the service better."
Cllr Neil Eustace (Lib Dem, Yardley East) described him as a 'brave man' for taking on the role - the third person to be in charge in the last 12 months - and questioned whether the long-term aim was to 'outsource' the 'shambolic' service to a private operator.
Cllr O'Shea dismissed the notion he was 'brave' when compared to the likes of front line social workers and argued he was in 'no doubt' the service could be run directly by the council.
The session concluded with a heated exchange as Cllr Alex Yip (Cons, Sutton Wylde Green) repeatedly questioned how many hours he would be dedicating to the post per week given his other job for Ms Phillips.
Cllr O'Shea clarified that his office management role was not full time and added: "I will put the hours into this job that it requires, I am completely committed to this role and I resent the suggestion of anything else."
