• DAVID Brescia and Chantelle de Villiers describe themselves as “shocked” and “outraged” at Camden’s changes to its waste contract (Failure to consult on bins is shocking, February 9).

Perhaps they “don’t want to play party politics”, as Ms de Villiers said she didn’t when she recently addressed a public meeting. Perhaps their shock and outrage will extend to the fact that, between 2010 and 2017, the council’s budget has been reduced by half by funding cuts from the government, despite the increasing need for council services due to our aging population among other factors.

Or perhaps not, given that they have been selected as Conservative candidates for the council, representing the party that imposed these massive funding cuts nationally that have created the inevitable need to find cost savings locally.

As the secretary of Hampstead & Kilburn’s Labour Party, while I recognise that it is inconvenient for some households that parts of Camden (including my own street) will, from April, have fortnightly collections of landfill waste, I should point out that only 15 per cent of waste produced by an average Camden resident actually needs to go to landfill. Also that we will all still get weekly collections of both food waste and waste for recycling.

If we can manage the simple task of putting food in the food bin, then any vermin infestations that the Conservatives seek to scare us with should not get any worse. We will just have to give a few seconds of thought a day to sorting our waste, just as Camden have to find millions of pounds a year to pay for the Tories’ rubbish funding cuts.

PETER TAHERI, NW6