LET me assure Mr Dunn that Bournemouth council has been considering the change to fortnightly refuse bin collection for some time now – as our neighbours Poole already do - to rationalise collections across our conurbation.

This proposal has absolutely nothing to do with party politics. In fact, a majority of councils of every political colour throughout the country have their little bins collected every two weeks, and a few every three weeks! I can promise your readers that this is definitely NOT on the cards for Bournemouth.

Not that long ago, as many readers will remember, we all had just one dustbin, which we threw everything into. All this rubbish was thrown into tips and people had little understanding of the need to preserve our precious environment.

Today, we Bournemouth residents have enthusiastically embraced using our big bins for recycling; and we are increasingly using our food waste bins – which will continue to be emptied weekly – for a lot of the potentially smelly waste, which is then recycled to provide energy.

Those of us with gardens love using our green waste bins, with many people already applying for extra bins, which will be expanded to collections over 10 months next year.

I know from personal experience that with so much being recycled, our little bin is used less than it ever has been, and is often only half full when collection day comes around.

Change can lead to uncertainty, but I am confident that the residents of Bournemouth will adapt easily to this change.

COUNCILLOR MICHAEL FILER

Cabinet Member for Cleansing and Waste, Bournemouth Town Hall

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