I WAS disappointed to read that South Lakeland District Council was considering stopping green waste collections for ten weeks instead of the present arrangement of six weeks during the winter months.

As gardeners, this is the time of year when most cutting back and tidying is done and not everyone has the opportunity to hump quantities of recyclable waste to the tip.

I appreciate that people are not grass cutting in winter and some leaves and cuttings should be composted if you have room in your garden for a compost heap or bin. But not everything is suitable for composting. Even with the present gap of six weeks , the green bins still get full long before collection day towards the end of January.

What are the alternatives? More green bins to store and ultimately collect; polluting bonfires; green waste put in grey household waste bins or fly tipping into hedgerows? None of which are acceptable solutions.

Even a monthly collection would be better than this long gap and is household waste really going to increase that much to deem a weekly collection necessary either side of Christmas and well into spring?

Cost can’t be an issue if the bin lorries are continuing to come round weekly in any case.

Christine Kent

Levens