OUT of Blackburn with Darwen Council's overall expenditure, the £56,000 cost of replacing the 2,000 wheelie bins stolen from householders last year may not be so tremendous.

It would be roughly equivalent, I'd say, to providing a dozen or so councillors with their perks of mobile phones, secretarial services, free newspapers and so forth at public expense.

But while this column yet again notes reports that half-inched wheelies are ending up in Ireland - just what is Interpol doing these days? - could not taxpayers picking up this bill do without the sort of condescending anti-theft advice they were getting last week from 'wheelie bin supremo' Councillor Dave Smith?

As well as urging people to secure their wheelies with chains and padlocks, Coun Smith was last week pictured pointing at bins left out in the street in the hope of encouraging people to bring them in as soon as they had been emptied.

Similarly, householders were asked not to put their bins out the night before collection if possible. But does not Dustman Dave realise that, despite the extra risks of thefts that these things entail, people have to do them in order to fit in with the council's policy and practice on refuse collection?

It was, after all, by introducing wheelie bins in the first place that councils, without asking, lumbered thousands of householders with the job of doing what the binmen themselves used to do - namely, collect bins from the yards and gardens of people's houses and return them there when they had been emptied.

At a stroke, councils encouraged the theft of so many bins and landed taxpayers with the cost of replacing them simply because so many people are out during the day and are unable to comply with these requests to minimise the length of time their bins are out on the street.

Besides which what moral right had councils to foist the business of carting bins to and fro upon householders who had previously paid their taxes for the binmen to do it?

And why cannot the binmen do so still and spare busy, hard-working people the inconvenience of acting as unpaid dustmen and reduce a considerable public bill for theft in the process?

I only ask.