• I DESPAIR of Veolia, Camden’s chosen contractor for waste collection. Not a week goes by when all the waste is collected as scheduled.

We residents of a converted house comply with Camden’s dictate by putting our waste in the various bags, bins or receptacles and placing them in an easily accessible, visible, place by the property/pavement edge.

The green and white paper reusable bags can only be reused if the Veolia workers return them to the property. Ours are marked with our address, yet go missing about once in every three weeks.

Garden bags go unemptied time and again (although this service is additionally paid for). I have to waste my time reporting the missed collections, usually 10-15 minutes following website prompts or speaking to an operator, obliging but powerless. Then I have to order more bags.

There may be a message on the website saying they were not able to collect because the waste was not in view or correctly placed – but this would only be due to the previous collectors on that day dumping all the big bins all over the pavement willy nilly, in front of the wrong houses, despite our bins and our neighbours’ being clearly marked. They just deposit them anywhere – even across the road – for pedestrians to negotiate as they best can.

So in this case, of course, anything behind those dumped bins is not visible – unless they actually are walking and using their eyes instead of cruising in a high vehicle. Would an improvement in this service be beyond the powers of Camden?

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED, NW6