FOLLOWING your piece on Bury Council putting chips in blue bins to see who does and doesn't recycle, I thought you might like to hear my bin story.

I noticed that most of the streets around us have brown and blue bins, so I decided to contact the council to ask for a brown bin, as I have an 80ft back garden.

At first I was told there was a shortage of brown bins and as soon as the supplier had some, I would get one. If I hadn't got one in two weeks I was asked to phone back, which I did. I was then told I shouldn't have one, but they were aiming to get one for everyone by 2007.

I said that I paid as much council tax as everyone else and was therefore paying for a service that I was not getting. I was told to ring back in two weeks.

I did this. Then one day I arrived home to see my brown bin had been delivered. I did think it was a little strange that I was the only one to get a bin, especially as there are only nine houses on the street.

We got on with some gardening, filled the bin and put it out on the allotted day. My bin wasn't emptied, however, so I put it out the next week and it was STILL not emptied. So I rang the council and they put me on the missed bin' list and my bin was emptied the next day.

Two weeks later I put the bin out and again it was not emptied. I rang the council only to be told very abruptly by customer services that she thought that I should not have a brown bin as I was the only one on the street that had one. She said she would send an inspector out and he would call me with his findings.

So, an inspector went out the same day and he called me with his findings . . . that I was the only one in the street with a brown bin. What a waste of council money, I had told them that weeks before!

He decided that he would send someone to remove the bin. Again, I said that I paid as much council tax as everyone else and was therefore paying for a service that I was not getting, having to use my own car, petrol and time to get rid of my garden waste. He said it would be better to give everyone a bin as there were only nine houses on the street. Not suprisingly this didn't happen.

So, back to the old senario. I put the bin out and it wasn't emptied. I rang the council, was put on missed bin list, then the bin was not emptied again. I rang the council again, but this time I was told that my problem would be passed on to the manager.

The next thing that happened was that I got a message to say that I shouldn't have the bin and they weree going to send someone out to remove it!

So that is where I am at, except I am going to put the bin around the back and turn the tables on them.

Let's see how many times they have to ring me to put the bin out - as it wasn't out for them to collect!

JUDI PRIESTLEY Whitefield