I too read the letter from Lewisham Council carefully and concluded that all the bins at my property (along with the neighbours below me) were ok to be left just inside the front gate. Sadly, the following Wednesday morning, neither of our black bins were retrieved or emptied by the bin men. I therefore immediately placed the recycling bins outside the gate on the pavement and they were duly emptied around lunchtime.

Since then on Tuesday evenings I have placed all our bins on the pavement directly outside our gate, taking care to ensure they are not obstructing the pavement.

I totally agree with Nitoda on not giving the Council any excuse to cut back on the refuse service, which we pay for through our Council Tax.

As an aside I work from home on a Wednesdays so I always take the opportunity to place the emptied bins of all the neighbours to my right and left back inside their gates, neatly by the front of the properties – 7 properties in total – this takes me only 5 minutes and it ensures that the pavement area is completely clear for mums & prams, skateboards, school-children on scooters, bicycles, mobility scooters and “Joe Public” of every description.

On a rare occasion the binmen have managed to place the bins on completely the wrong side of the road – between that and the fact that they seem to find it necessary to leave the empty bins spewed all over the pavement – I agree that at the times the pavements are like an obstacle course.

Triangle - I too remember the days, where I was brought up, when the “scaffy” (Scottish word for binmen!) would walk round the back of the property to collect the heavy tin bins. It was not unknown for them to sweep the snow off the path on their way round. Ah the good old days!

Having said all this the Lewisham binmen I’ve met on occasion outside my property have always been mannerly and helpful, especially when I’ve occasionally dashed outside with some last minute recycling – so I have no complaints there.