After months of failure to resolve Birmingham's bin strike, Councillor John Clancy has finally done the decent thing and resigned. Frankly, this decision should have come a lot sooner and it is too little, too late, for many of the city's residents. They have suffered due to the Labour Group's incompetence.

The condemnation that he has met from his opposition colleagues is what he deserves. Ian Cruise, the Independent Councillor for Longbridge, is right to say that he clung onto the position for the sake of his own ego. As the Longbridge Councillor said, he ignored legal advice from council officers, his own Cabinet and Labour Group and Birmingham's Labour MPs.

By allowing the bin strikes to endure, he has damaged the city's reputation and created rat colonies.

His decision was motivated by politics

As Conservative Councillor Deidre Alden said, he seemed more concerned about the impact the bin strikes were having on Labour, not Birmingham's residents. This demonstrates that his decision was motivated by Politics and nothing else. It is no coincidence that he resigned moments before facing a vote of no confidence from his own colleagues too. His choice was not in the best interests of the city, but for his own political career. As Councillor Roger Harmer, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, said: "Cabinet members should be considering their own positions too."

Birmingham will not remember the achievements he referenced in his statement in years to come, like the £45 million "Brummie Bond" for local housing, the ICT joint venture agreement with Capita or annual payments to the West Midlands Local Government Pension Fund.

What they will recall is a man who was awarded with enough money by central government to fund the waste services without the need for privatisation and squandered it, like so many Labour administrations do.

A man who is not willing to take responsibility for his own actions

This situation could have been handled so much better.

When Unite delayed striking action, the City Council provoked them into walking out again by issuing Grade 3 workers redundancy notices. It will be interesting to see how Birmingham's new leader, Councillor Ian Ward, will handle the crisis, but it cannot be any worse than how his predecessor dealt with it.

Councillor Clancy has the nerve to blame journalists for inaccurate reporting of the situation, a clear indication of a man who is not willing to take responsibility for his own actions.

At one point, the City Council blamed this incident on the Conservatives. For Labour, it is always someone else's fault. When Birmingham reflects on his leadership, two words should spring to most people's minds- it stinks.