THERE has been a lot of talk recently on who is responsible for keeping our towns clean and who is causing the mess in the first place.

We have councillors saying residents only have to ring the cleansing department and the problem will go away, as simply as that.

That's a lot of rubbish, if you will pardon the pun. People dump old suites, beds and the like because, firstly, the council says that they will not be allowed into the tip yard with a van. Then, we have an official who says they can.

If you do get through to the cleansing department they say they will be there within five days, so you just have leave whatever you want to get rid of until then.

The thing that gets me more than anything is the fact that refuse collectors go down every street in the borough every week and know where all the rubbish is dumped every week, so you don't have to be Jessica Fletcher to work out which areas need extra cleaning and more thorough investigation is needed to catch those who are tipping.

I spent most of the morning on May 13 trying to get through to the cleansing department to report rubbish that had been dumped by someone else in my back alley -- without success. May I suggest that they make this number an 0800 one, or, failing that, make it ex-directory.

ROY DAVIES, Olive Lane, Darwen.