The East Area Parliament in Oxford noted that public funds had been used to buy 100 blue wheelie bins, 52 of which had already been distributed to help encourage people living in houses of multiple occupation to recycle more.

Discussions about these free bins began in the summer and at two Parliament meetings, council officers flagged up objections to this use of public funds.

Despite this, the Parliament has gone ahead and used taxpayers' money to provide bins.

It looks as though they are being distributed to houses owned by errant landlords, who have failed to provide adequate facilities for their tenants.

The costs involved are small compared with the city council's annual spending - just £2,200 for 100 bins.

But this comes at a time when the council is having to work hard to find millions of pounds of efficiency savings.

The action is also in my view misplaced, as it ignores the real problem in East Oxford, which is the lack of enforcement action against households not complying with the new recycling initiative.

I recently requested enforcement statistics for East Oxford under the Freedom of Information Act, and discovered that not a single fine or fixed penalty notice had been issued.

This mirrors the enforcement gap in the city council reported by you in tackling graffiti, flytipping and dog-fouling (Oxford Mail, December 19).

Anyone who regularly walks around East Oxford, up and down streets such as Marston Street, Bullingdon Road and many others, will have noticed the horrendous mess over recent weeks, as students have left the city at the end of term, with bins left on pavements, overflowing bins, and side waste piled up in front gardens.

One of the worst areas is James Street - isn't that the home of the Deputy Lord Mayor, Stephen Tall?

We now have the Green-run East Area Parliament subsidising private sector landlords (how do the anti-capitalists in the Green Party reconcile that?), with Labour apparently silent on the issue, and the Lib Dem administration too weak, divided and afraid to step up enforcement action, for fear of the potential backlash from the public.

Green Party councillor Deborah Glass Woodin wrote that waste management was now a communal problem (Oxford Mail, December 1).

She was right - we are all now sharing the burden, not only of having to live in East Oxford with the filth and mess of others, but at the same time, watching as councillors squander our hard-earned tax.

CHRIS CLIFFORD (Dr), Iffley Fields, Oxford