Sir, - The Government has recently been searching for ways to slow the constant increase in house prices. Perhaps it should seek to emulate the actions of Bray UDC, which recently decided to stop providing a waste collection service from the end of January onwards.
Residents of Bray have now been left in a sort of limbo with some people arranging to have their waste collected by one private contractor, others arranging for the services of another contractor, while others - the poorest and most needy in our town - may well not be able to afford waste collection at all.
With everyone's waste being collected on different days there should soon be bins and bags on the side of the streets every day of the week.
Cats and rats will no doubt rip open discarded bags of rubbish. And in the summer we have flies and the smell of decomposing waste to look forward to. As if this were not enough the constant presence of bins and bags on the pavements will make it even more difficult than it already is for young parents like myself to safely wheel a pram around the town. All of which surely means that house prices will come tumbling down as the "Gateway to Wicklow" quickly acquires a reputation for being a gateway marred by the unsightly and unhealthy presence of bags, bins and uncollected waste. - Yours, etc.
Dr Max Barrett, Haven Court, Convent Avenue, Bray.