A rubbish move

LEEDS City Council is right. There is no excuse for people dropping litter in the streets. Equally, however, its citizens have a right to expect their bins to be emptied every week. It is, after all, a key element of their monthly council tax bill.

This is why there will be dismay at the fact that the Tory and Lib Dem-led council continued imposing fines on litter louts in spite of bins overflowing, and rubbish being left to pile up in the streets, during the authority's three-month dispute with refuse collectors.

This was not the council's finest hour. It saw Leeds receive adverse publicity across the country. And, irrespective of the arguments put forward by both sides, the council – and the trade unions – should have sought mediation at a far earlier stage.

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In the meantime, Leeds City Council should have been using the staff at its disposal to empty street bins far more frequently than they did rather than pursuing those whose misdemeanours were minuscule in comparison to the volume of rubbish which went uncollected for so long. If the council had done so, these fines would have been eminently justifiable.