Re your recent report on Blackburn with Darwen council's inititiative on refuse, including the inspection of the contents of bins.

I would like to make known my own experience with said council and their policy on rubbish removal.

About two months ago I had occasion to contact the Cleansing Department to ask them to remove a number of grey bins filled with household rubbish (non recyclable) that had been dumped in the alley at the rear of my house.

I was told they would be collected within five working days. Two weeks later they were still there so I rang again. By this time, by the way, the bins had been joined by some ten black refuse sacks also filled with household waste.

The young lady I spoke to this time, sensing I was a tad irate, passed me on to a chap a little further up the pole of responsibility, who informed me that he personally would come out and inspect the site (and by this stage what a sight it was) and if I was telling the truth he would get it shifted which I must admit duly happened ... to half of it!

When I again phoned the council they informed me that they had removed the rubbish that was their responsibility – ie on the cobbles of the alley – but the other half was lying on a strip of grass which apparently is unadopted and not their problem.

I thought ‘How childish can you get’ and then I read about them spending £70,000 on what my dad would have called tub diving – it’s unbelievable.

JOHN SMITH via email