WE are appalled that Pendle Council may charge or fine people who continually leave rubbish in back streets.

If you leave your rubbish in the yard, it will not be collected by the bin men.

You have to leave your rubbish bags in the back street on the day of collection. But stray dogs and cats come along and rip the bags to bits before they are collected.

This is a common event in Pendle and the council will look silly when someone, taken to court, puts that excuse forward.

Before they start taking it out on residents, they should look at other means of keeping the rubbish off our back streets.

When we all had bins in our yards and bin men emptied them in the good old Sixties, there was very little rubbish left round.

I realise it was time-consuming and expensive, but that is not the point. If they want cleanliness, there is a price to pay and it should not always be the householder alone who foots the bill. The council has responsibilities too.

What about wheelie bins like they have in Blackburn and many other towns? When these were mentioned five years ago, the council said they were very expensive.

But until they introduce wheelie bins or go back to the bins system and do away with plastic bags, they should not put all the onus on the householder.

As regards cleaning of the back street, it was four weeks before the General Election when they last did ours and the drains have not been done for the last 10 years.

I realise Pendle must be cleaned up, but it should be a joint effort - the council doing its part and the residents theirs. They must provide wheelie bins and then people will have no excuse if they leave rubbish in the back streets. Thin, plastic bags are not sufficient.

T HARTLEY (Mr and Mrs), Hall Street, Colne.

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