HARD on the heels of the plan in Blackburn to leave bulging wheelie bins unemptied if their lids were open by more than 45 degrees comes the disclosure of the newest nutty notion to stop people putting rubbish in them.

This time, it's putting flat-dwellers' bins in a cage, so they can only easily get at three out of the 18 bins in it.

The council has only half-ditched this intriguing idea - saying that 'following complaints' action is now being taken to remove or retain these so-called bin stores according to the wishes of residents of each individual block of flats.

Next, I hear that, in Lower Darwen, residents are now being expected to play at binmen themselves - either carting sacks of rubbish to the end of their back street, or humping through their homes to the front of their houses - all because the uneven, potholed and moss-covered conditions in their back now "present a hazard to our operatives."

Dear me, they'll be breaking their fingernails next, turning round those bins thoughtlessly left with their handles pointing away from the road.

All right, I accept there are reasons for all of this.

But it seems to me that most of them are for the binmen's benefit rather than for that of the punters forking out their council tax to have their rubbish removed without fuss - as used to happen, you know.