After clearing out a small outhouse, I rang the council to have some rubbish removed.

I was asked to give a description of every article in the small pile of rubbish word for word, ie one spade, one bucket etc. Then I had to listen while all these were repeated back to me.

I said I also had a large roof slate. ‘Sorry’, I was told, ‘you must pay extra for that.’ In the end, and at a costly phone call to myself, I was told it would cost me £25.

I wondered if I was getting value for money: no-one had seen the amount of rubbish I wanted removing.

I now intend to shop around for someone else to remove my rubbish.

A word of caution: people other than the council must be registered because if they dump their rubbish illegally, you the house-holder could be fined.

I can foresee more rubbish dumped illegally with the cost and hassle now created by the council.

That afternoon after I rang about my rubbish, I was travelling down St James Road and saw a three-piece suite dumped on spare land.

H Hamer.