OH how I chuckled when I read about St Helens council’s revamped waste collection arrangements.

I can just imagine the meeting. Some bright spark says ‘Hey! Let’s make the household waste collections EVEN MORE over-complicated and unnecessary!’

Now FIVE containers to deal with.

To my elderly parents and others, the already complicated waste collection is a little like completing an army assault course just to get the various bags and boxes to the kerbside for collection.

Then they have to take a walk to retrieve the randomly thrown empty ones.

I lived in St Helens from birth and my parents still do, but now I reside just over the border in Wigan. Here we have a very simple waste collection. Four bins. That’s it. FOUR BINS: landfill, garden, paper and recyclables. Easy, eh? No waste. No mess. Plus you do not need the abilities of an Olympic weightlifter to move them to the kerb.

Come on St Helens Council. Let’s do something RIGHT for a change.

Oh, and I don’t know ANYONE who was consulted on this subject... do you?

Keith Lamb