REGARDING Catherine Smyth's article (LET, June 14) 'Bins a success' in Rossendale (detailing the council's views on their new wheelie bins scheme - Editor).

The bins, with the Rossendale crest in gold on the front are now one of the sights of our valley - an enforced invasion not welcomed by the majority. Anyone can call an action a success when it is telling less than the truth and duping the public into doing part of the council's work themselves while making sure that they pay through their council tax.

The distribution of these bins has been a complete disaster from the very beginning, with very little of the information promised by the council and many complaints. What price our clean streets when the greater evil is of outstanding 'wheelies' littering our front gardens and footpaths?

Even one of the the perpetrators of this erroneous action, Coun Susan Baron admitted (LET, April 19) that extra staff had to be drafted in to cope with all the complaints.

We pay our dustmen to collect and return our bins, but now we have to produce these bins ourselves at the roadside, (handles facing outwards) although it may take some doing when there are many steps to overcome before doing so.

That people in Rossendale are sitting back and allowing all this to happen is beyond me.

G CLARKE, Fernhill Avenue, Stacksteads, Bacup.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.