Fears are mounting that the ongoing Leeds bin strike could be putting public health at risk – while a Government minister has urged Leeds City Council to resolve the dispute.

Council refuse and street cleaning workers have been striking since Monday, September 7, over a pay and grading review which unions say could result in pay cuts of as much as £6,000.

The authority has been using increasing numbers of private wagons and crews to collect black bin (non-recyled) waste since the dispute began, and last week said it hoped to be able to do so across the city on a fortnightly basis.

But waste has still been piling up on some streets and reports have emerged this week of rats and swarms of flies being spotted in parts of Leeds. Laboratory manager Chris Boothby from Leeds Metropolitan University, mean-while, has warned that bacteria and fungi from the unemptied bins were spreading out into the environment and could lead to breathing problems like asthma.

Mr Boothby said in a test sample of one household bin, he recorded a reading of 48,029 harmful ‘bugs’ while a normal reading of a regularly emptied bin would be nearer 4,000.

One Otley resident said this week that no bins on his part of Bondgate had been emptied since the strike began, and that the pavement was almost becoming impassable due to the number of bins being permanently left out.

Cabinet minister Hilary Bennn waded into the dispute on Tuesday when he slammed the council for how it was handling things.

Questioning why other councils had successfully managed to introduce new pay structures without sparking an industrial conflict, the Leeds Central MP and Environment Secretary urged the council to drop preconditions for talks and to start negotiating immediately.

Leeds Council, however, insists that “giving in” to the GMB and Unison’s demands would mean having to abandon the results of its pay and grading review to ensure no employees lost money – something it claims would cost £45 million.

The authority also says the greatest pay cut facing the refuse and street cleaning workers is £4,491, with the average being less than £3,000, and points out that some of the staff will actually receive a pay rise.

Both unions, though say the cuts being faced by the majority of the hundreds of workers involved will threaten their very livelihood and could lead to many losing their homes.

LCC leader Councillor Richard Brett said: “I do have sympathy with the strikers and their families and would urge them to come back to work so that we can continue negotiations about the potential for addressing the pay gap and modernising the service.

Residents are still being advised to put their black bins out (recycling bins are not being prioritised during the strike) on their normal collection days, but to take them back if they have not been collected by 6pm.