COUNCIL workers sneaking through Lancashire residents’ bins is a gross invasion of privacy.

Lancashire County Council says that the bin audit is to help it identify waste patterns and improve services.

But the fact that residents are not being told about the checks for fear of them changing what they throw away is a disgrace.

The £70,000 cost of the project, which involves looking in 400 bins, is also difficult to justify.

This is not the first time that an over-zealous council has overstepped the mark when it comes to bins.

Earlier this year Blackburn with Darwen Council started snooping in people’s back yards to see whether or not they had an additional wheelie bin.

It really is a case of Big Brother gone mad, and both projects encroached on people’s civil liberties.

You can tell a lot about a person by what they have thrown away.

By the council’s own admission, people would change what they discarded if they thought it was not going straight to a landfill site.

While everyone should be careful to ensure that personal details are shredded before being thrown away, the fact is many people are not that vigilant.

If the council really believes this project is worth while, it should find willing volunteers who are happy for their rubbish to be examined.

Everyone else should be left alone.