IS my black bin smaller than everyone else’s? Because, try as I may, I cannot get three to four black bags of rubbish into it as instructed.

Mine will only hold two full bags. So in effect households have been reduced to one black bag per week for collection, which is not enough for the average family household of four with growing children over three years of age.

When the recycling bins first came in, households were given a choice of which size they required so why is this not happening with the black bins?

Households are instructed to take excess waste (over one bag a week) to the rubbish dump, but how do they get it there? They are expected to place it in a vehicle which is used for taking children to school, carrying food home from the shops and travelling to work in their clean clothes.

And breathe in the fumes while travelling miles to the nearest tip - this is surely against every health and hygiene rule in the book!

It seems inconceivable that one of the supposedly richest countries in Europe cannot find room in its economy to provide the most basic of services for the taxpayer when other poorer countries can manage to do so.

JULIA KELLY Credenhill