I had my bins emptied last week for the first time in 4 or 5 weeks. The bin men picked up any bag lying around, so they are conscientious.
I have every sympathy with them. They have had a pay freeze for a couple of years, and are now being asked to take a 5% cut in pay, and pay an extra 3% of their wages into their pensions. I think they are also being asked to take subsequent pay freezes as well.
At the same time the council can find money to resurface my road, resurface 40 miles of pavements in the City, spend £15million on a Titanic museum, hoard valuable works of art that nobody can see, spend £800k on Oxford Street (no doubt helping a few Tory pals) and councillors continue to receive over the top expenses (my local councillor gloated this one to me when I asked him to close a cutway at the back of my garden). We are also paying a chief executive more money than the Prime Minister, and some senior managers are earning in excess of £100k.