When we moved recently, it took over a year and several dozen requests to our council and councillors to get our refuse collected with any regularity.

The monumentally incompetent service and incredulous lack of will to try to do anything about it despite almost weekly complaints over such a long period has made me wonder why local authorities still have a monopoly on refuse collection.

Imagine if you could choose your refuse collection company in the same way you could choose a window cleaner, garderner, babysitter, etc.

If they didn't show up, regular as clockwork on the right days (or at all, I my case) you'd be able to 'fire' them and simply switch to another provider.

Likewise if they were overcharging, or if you wanted a company that would recycle more, or whatever.

Obviously there'd still have to be some work by the public sector, such as setting and monitoring standards by which the companies would have to operate, and prosecuting individuals who were not paying for collections, dumping their waste in other people's bins, etc, but I don't think this would outweight the benefits.

Does anyone know whether this has ever been considered, and if so why privatisation has not been tried?