I ENQUIRED at the district council offices about the collection of my green waste bin as I will not be paying £26 on top of my council tax.

I received a reply from Marsha Llewellyn, the Environmental Promotions officer as follows:

"Following your request, I am writing to advise that we will be picking up any redundant garden bin between Monday 16 April and Friday 27 April. During this fortnight, please position your bin(s) in a prominent position inside your gate from 8.00am each day so that it can be easily seen and accessed by our operative.

"Please ensure that your garden waste bin is completely empty prior to collection. Bins containing waste will not be able to be lifted and consequently cannot be taken.

"Please note that during April and May your new refuse bin and food waste caddies will be delivered to the boundary of your property. This process is being managed by an external contractor on our behalf. Therefore, should you happen to receive these during the dates given above, please be aware that this distribution is completely independent from the pick up for your garden wheeled bin, which will be undertaken by an officer from the Council."

Now are we in a recession or not? The expense of new refuse lorries and the supply of all these extra bins does not (in my opinion) demonstrate that cutting back on public spending is being taken seriously by the district council, and what about the cost of this outside contractor?

Some residents do not have room for all these unsightly bins. I suppose we have to rip up our front gardens to accommodate these bins.

I for one will be using my own food waste for my compost heap, but not bones or meat waste.

I don't know whether all the Forest towns have been made aware of the collection of redundant green bins so I hope the above information will be helpful to you all. It will be interesting to see how many bins will be collected?

– Not impressed (name and address supplied).