It's just one week since Redbridge Council launched the new policy of inflicting wheelie bins on thousands of households in the borough but already the consequence is miserably apparent. In the Edwardian terraced streets of my area, where there is seldom easy access to the back of the house, we have little choice but to park these wretchedly intrusive objects in the front garden. The result, of course, is an eyesore in our once pleasant neighbourhood.

In his letter last week, Wanstead Village councillor Paul Donovan told us that all this heralds a new dawn for local refuse collection. Well, perhaps it does - though not in the way he imagines. With these large new bins in place it will be much easier for the council to opt for less frequent rubbish collections. Once a fortnight maybe? Other councils have done just that. What's more, in the name of 'efficiency' there will inevitably be a temptation to saddle us with still more wheelies, to accommodate not just household rubbish but recyclable material and food waste too. That's already the system in neighbouring Waltham Forest.

Read more: Wheelie bins are a better - not lesser - service

Sadly, our elected representatives just aren't listening. They have no electoral mandate for their new policy. They claim to have consulted us, but I've met nobody who has been asked for an opinion. They say that change is necessary because of climate change, but can't explain how thousands of new, expensively produced wheelie bins - all made of unrecyclable plastic - can possibly save the planet. This looks more and more like an exercise in empty virtue-signalling - at the public's expense.

Michael Toner

Addison Road, Wanstead