The boss of a council under fire amid a chaotic bin strike situation spent the first week of the crisis on a business trip in Cannes, it is reported.
Joanne Roney, managing director of Birmingham City Council, jetted off to the French Riviera in the same week refuse workers began an all-out strike last month. Since then, bags of rubbish have piled up across the city and concern has grown for the most vulnerable, including those living in sheltered accommodation. Rats and even cockroaches have been seen crawling through the waste, Labour (Co-op) MP for Birmingham Edgbaston said.
But one day after the industrial action had started, Ms Roney, who started her position last September, had a plum speaking role on a panel in Cannes. While it is unclear how long the business trip lasted, critics have said it was “bad judgment” for Ms Roney to be missing in action at such a vital time. The council, which at the end of March declared a major incident to address the strikes, called it a “planned work trip”.
More than 21,000 tons of uncollected rubbish have piled up on the streets of Birmingham since the refuse collectors started the industrial action. Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister, on Thursday urged the refuse collectors to accept an “improved” deal as she met volunteers clearing rubbish in the city.
Ms Roney’s earlier absence there, though, divided opinion. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail: ‘It shows peculiarly bad judgment. It epitomises the whole way this council has been run, it’s a shocking shambles.”
However, it was noted Ms Roney, herself a native Brummie, was at the world’s largest real estate conference, an appearance which it is hoped will attract developer interest in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region. City leader from across the world regularly attend Le Marché international des professionnels de l’immobilier (MIPIM), held each year in Cannes.
A spokesperson for Birmingham City Council told the Daily Mail: “This was a planned work trip, and all of Joanne’s expenses, including flights and accommodation, have been funded by the private sector.”
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