When I Was A Boy,

I always knew when it was Thursday, there would be a series of loud crashes as the bin lorry drew nearer our house and the bins were emptied, in those halcyon days it did not mater if the bin had a lid, was over flowing with refuse or not, even bricks and cement if you could afford to have the builders in to make the outside toilet into an inside one, or joy of joys a bathroom, rather than I was used to, a galvanized tin bath that we all shared in front of an open coal fired in the living room, but not so today, police are being brought in for extra patrols after a series of angry clashes between residents and council workers - over bin collections, the confrontations erupted after bin men refused to collect a string of wheelie bins left outside homes in the Tredworth area of Gloucester, they said they would not empty the bins because of the city council's strict policy of only emptying bins which were fully closed, local resident Tony Goss, 50, a father-of-three, said his bin wasn't collected even though the lid was left open by only a fraction, he said: 'I think it is totally outrageous, it is approximately half an inch open on one side at the top, surely it just needs a bit of common sense applied,' Tony let me stop you there, common sense - council, they do not go hand in glove, OK lets bring in the police, Sgt Lynn Northfield, of the local White City Safer Community Team, said police will now increase patrols during bin collection times, she said: 'We are aware of several recent incidents of verbal disagreements between Tredworth residents and the binmen, as a result, we have increased patrols during collection times in the area to ensure there are no altercations and will continue to monitor the situation over the next few weeks,' but wait a moment who makes the rules that the binmen have to follow? you got there before me - the council!