[Acrylic-bob]

OK, not wishing to be left out, I will add my five-pennorth. Regular readers of my occaisionally less than complimentary opinions, will no doubt recall that unlike the majority of my neighbours I am not deemed suitable to have a wheelie bin and so must make do with storing my rubbish indoors in lurid orange sacks.

The bin men have been and gone this morning, and have taken away my refuse. No problem there, though let's face it folks it is hardly neurosurgery we are discussing here.

The street and grass verges are, however, a blizzard of litter now. There is a bit of a draft in the area this morning and the air is filled with truant luminous orange waste sacks. Presumably my neighbours will now have to resort to black bags in which to store their refuse for the next fortnight. The said black bags will not be collected when the bin men come again, because they are under instructions not to take them away. So they will probably find themselves dumped at the side of the road in a convenient layby or beauty spot. This of course will cause a great deal of nuisance, will attract vermin and will provide encouragement to other people who may be considering fly tipping. The end result is that it will cost 10 to 20 times more to clear the consequences than it would to simply take the bags away in the first place.

The thing that puzzles me is that previous to the change in collection arrangements my neighbours and I provided our own black refuse sacks. Thus costing the council nothing. Since they now insist on only taking refuse in the orange sacks which they provide, it strikes me that the service has become more expensive, not less. And is less effective in keeping the area clean, not more.