ELIZABETH Mills is right to complain about missed collections, but it represents the tip of the iceberg of problems with waste collections in the city.

Other nuisances persist across much of the city, not least the constant build up of side waste, particularly in student front gardens, as each cohort of students comes and goes from Oxford with little incentive to manage the recycling process correctly.

Just recently I have had to suffer while a house in the process of being registered as an HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) occupied by five students, with little spoken English, who continue to leave black bin liners stuffed full of residual waste piled up in a front garden in Windmill Road. This despite field officer and ‘education’ visits. Finally, the tortuous process of getting legal enforcement has apparently begun this week while we wait to see whether the city council manages to serve notices effectively or receives some lame excuse by the occupiers as to why the waste has piled up.

Over four years since the introduction of alternate weekly collections, these problems persist in Oxford.

Perhaps the time has come for the wholesale market testing of the collection system and enforcement team, with enforcement officers and the collection team financially incentivised to spot and deal with various nuisances, rather than the passive system in place now where the system relies on householders having to identify problems, and take the time and trouble to report problems.

DR CHRIS CLIFFORD, Windmill Road, Oxford