We must preserve one of the state's most fundamental obligations in a modern, civilised society.
Since 1875, when Disraeli's Public Health Act imposed new standards of sanitation on local councils, the right of British householders to have their refuse collected at least once a week has been recognised as essential to the nation's health and quality of life.
Yet all over the country, that right is being systematically undermined by politicians totally out of touch with the everyday concerns of the ordinary people they were elected to serve.
Today, amid mounting public anger, around a third of households have their rubbish collected only once every two weeks.
So while council taxes have almost doubled under labour, some nine million people have seen one of their most valued and visible local authority services cut by half.
Far from listening to the public outcry, however, Ministers have shown themselves determined to introduce fortnightly collections everywhere - and never mind what the mere public may think
One government lie must be nailed at the very outset of our campaign - the claim that it's for the good of the environment that bin collections should be halved.
How does the environment benefit by forcing householders to live with the stench of rotting rubbish?
What is green about the infestations of vermin and the increases in fly-tipping and litter already seen in areas where collections have been cut?
How will the planet be saved by driving householders to burn their rubbish on the quiet?
No. This isn't really about the environment at all. Like so many other measures introduced in the name of greenery - punitive taxes on petrol and air travel, congestion charges and the rest - it all comes down to money.
The new tyranny over waste disposal began in 1996, when the Tories introduced a landfill tax, payable by local authorities on every tonne of rubbish they dumped. The excuse at the time, as so often, was an interfering EU directive.
Since then Gordon Brown - never one to miss an opportunity to fill the Treasury's coffers by stealth - has increased that tax massively. In last month's Budget, he stepped it up once again, raising the annual escalator from £3 to £8 per tonne.
No wonder local councils, faced with those extra bills, have been attracted by the idea of halving refuse collections.
Not only would this save them money - and help them avoid severe government penalties - but they could also use it as an excuse to raise more for themselves through fines on householders who disobeyed their Draconian new rules.
So it is that people who live in "alternate-weekly collection" zones now face stiff fines if they overfill their wheelie-bins, put out their rubbish on the wrong day or sort it into the wrong bags.
Who would ever have thought that it would become a punishable offence in Britain to put a banana skin in the same rubbish bag as yesterday's paper?
There's nothing new, of course, about national and local government seeking new ways to raise money from the public. What is new - and deeply sinister - is the politicians' complete disregard for the wishes of ordinary people who have to live with the consequences of their policies.
First they tried to deceive the public, urging town halls to introduce-fortnightly collections in winter, when bad smells would be less noticeable, and to try to avoid election times.
It was only when that advice was made public that it was hastily withdrawn.
Next, they sought to spin the evidence of a report they commissioned themselves on the health implications of fortnightly rubbish collections.
In highly selective leaks, they failed to mention the report's findings that people who lost their weekly collections would endure invasion by insects and vermin, "loss of amenity", annoyance and smells that could make them sick.
In the report's words: "In extreme cases, unpleasant odours can cause symptoms such as nausea."
But now Environment Minister David Miliband has taken the politicians' contempt for ordinary people even further. In a breathtaking affront to democracy, he plans to put rubbish collection beyond the influence of voters altogether.
His Local Government Bill, now going through Parliament, contains proposals to set up unelected "joint waste authorities", with the power to impose fortnightly collections across local authority boundaries.
Incredibly, once councils have signed up to these new quangos they will be unable to withdraw from them.
So voters in council elections will no longer have any say at all in a matter of huge importance to their everyday lives.
At a stroke, local authorities will escape accountability for one of their most basic responsibilities.
Isn't it utterly typical of this Government that its reaction to hostile public opinion is first to spin and deceive - and then to try to bypass the voters entirely?
It's easy to see why Mr Miliband is nervous. At least 11 local councils have already been driven to restore weekly rubbish collections by the sheer force of public opinion and councillors' fear of losing their seats.
Ken R
We've had fornightly collections around here now for nearly 3 years! As soon as wheelie bins were introduced, we were put onto the fortnightly collection rota. As a single person, I don't really find it too much of ahardship, the olny bin I regularly fill is the garden waste bin, my grey bin is rarely even half full, so that is no great hardship, but I do notice that most families seem to struggle to get all their waste for 2 weeks into one bin.
I also discovered that all the bins we were issued with had been secretly microchipped This was done without any prior notification by the local authority and up until quite recently, they were still denying it ! I told all my neighbours/friends/work colleagues, as soon as I found out about the bin chipping and quite a number(myself included) , have now removed the chips. I didn't ask for a wheelie bin in the first place and nobody ever officially told me about the bin chip policy, so the way I figure it, if the council denies the chips are there, then they can hardly prosecute anyone for removing them, can they ?
Since the wheelie bins have been introduced, the council has gone stark staring bonkers, printing and distributing lovely glossy newsletters every couple of months and shoving bin emptying timetables through all the letterboxes in the area. Now we just letters with a whole list of "Holy Grail" rules on what can and cannot be put in bins, what times you must put your bin out by and what time it must be taken back in by, where the bin must be put for collections etc. , it's beaurocracy gone mad
I reckon that all the "so called" savings the council have "supposedly" achieved since introducing the wheelie bins has probably been wasted on churning out the regular paper mountian every couple of weeks, I'm thinking of fitting a letter box in the side of my recycling bin to cut out the "middle man", I'll just stick a note above the slot asking the postman to put all council correspondence straight into the bin
Rant over
Sandie Seward
Ken, I'm afraid that the E.U. is to blame for all this nonsense. They pass directives onto our puppet government, and then the government puppets pull more strings and dangle cash incentives in front of the local councils' noses to implement fortnightly collections.
I'm pleased that you and many of your neighbours have removed the chips. Just gently cook them for 30secs on 750w. in your microwave oven, and post it (annonomously) to your local council saying, "found this foriegn body inserted in my wheelie bin. It was there without my permission, and as I don't wish to cause any unnessesary litter, thought that the best thing would be to return it to yourselves for safe disposal."
Ken R
Had a trip up to Liverpool today, thought it was bad enough here , what with 2 green bins and one grey one (Yuk !), but the poor souls up there have Purple bins and Mid Blue ones WHATS all that about then ????
I mean, our bins are Green for garden rubbish, Green ,again, for recycling and dull grey for household waste, the colour coding is almost logical (if you squint a bit and don't think too much about it !)
But PURPLE What's that one for , recycling Ribena and Vimto bottles ?
marieann
Ours are collected fortnightly, admin, One week the green refuse bin and the next week the grey recycling bin, this contains everything except glass which goes into a black plastic box. It works very well for the two of us but there is a house with two adults and three children behind us and there are usually extra black bags with their bin.
Sandie Seward
Marie, where I live (in a sheltered housing complex), it would be totally impracticle for fortnightly collections. To serve fifty self-contained flats, we have a total of four big bins on roller wheels. All these bins are full to overflowing by the time they are emptied. Bin day is Friday, (except when altered due to Bank Holidays), but long before that, usually late Tuesday, all the bins are full, and black bags spread out around them in the bin sheds.
Our council have "promised" not to have fortnightly collections, but then, we all know about councils' promises don't we.
On hot days, the binsheds smell terrible, although they are regularly disenfected. If ever our collections were switched to fortnightly, they would become unbearable long before the collecting day.
I have attempted to take some of my rubbish to the local Ammenity site for disposal, and the staff there are rude and extremely suspisious of anyone so doing.
We pay for rubbish removeal in our council tax, so why should we be forced to deliver our surplus rubbish personally. Not only that, but a majority of residents here do not drive or own their own car.
dorramae
We have only recently started a fortnightly collection, without any
previous notice.
I have only one bin, not a recyling bin of any kind,
just up the road the houses have black,green, brown, purple. bins.
I am not sure why myself and my next door neiighbour
have been left out of the scheme, apart from the possiblity
of the location, our semi detached properties stand a little apart
from the surrounding properties, but by no means inaccessable.
marieann
Dora have you had a word with your council. Sometimes the people who distribute the bins can't be bothered to do it properly.
Admin your local authority wants putting in those bins that is ridiculous.
dorramae
I am in touch with the council and I am also waiting for them to remove
some flytipped bricks and rubble on some spare ground to the rear of my house.Apparently they have to check out the land registry before
they will remove it..It is taking ages. So much burocracy before
anything gets done.
JoJo
We get a weekly household bin collection on a Thursday,and they take garden rubbish, and cans bottles and papers alternate Tuesdays,so it's not bad, My Beef is they won't have any plastic,I take plastic bottles to Tesco,but still throw lots away to land fill, I Live in North East Lincs but North Lincs just down the road have bins that include plastic,it just dosn't make sense
This was done without any prior notification by the local authority and up until quite recently, they were still denying it ! I told all my neighbours/friends/work colleagues, as soon as I found out about the bin chipping and quite a number(myself included) , have now removed the chips. I didn't ask for a wheelie bin in the first place and nobody ever officially told me about the bin chip policy, so the way I figure it, if the council denies the chips are there, then they can hardly prosecute anyone for removing them, can they ? 
