Lancashire County Council spends

£60,000 snooping through bins on early morning raids, families have been woken at 5.30am by the noise of contractors taking rubbish away hours before the regular collection is due, but residents say the scheme is an invasion of privacy and a Big Brother-style intrusion, Eric Green, of Chorley, said: 'If they want to check our rubbish then they should knock on our doors and ask to do so, the reason for the 5.30 collections is as councillor Tony Martin, cabinet member for resources and performance, said: 'We are trying to make sure people dispose of their rubbish appropriately as they are not supposed to throw items like electrical goods away, 'I apologise for us going early but if we go round at 10 o'clock most of the bins would have been picked up, but why not go round at say 8.00 with the normal bin service? Oh! I forgot the council is awash with money, so that's alright then!