North Herts Council’s Conservative cabinet has voted to ignore the results of its own survey which showed 85% of people opposed and introduce a charge of £40 a year, on top of council tax, for emptying brown bins.

Anybody not paying the charge will have their brown bin taken away.

The council says it needs the money but has failed to raise money in other ways which it could have done without making everyone pay for an existing.

Why did the council bother to ask residents what they thought if it was going to ignore the clearly express views of residents?