With regard to the new community rubbish bins whose trial will replace the existing refuse collection (The Argus, November 25), why did the council not hold public meetings before it decided to steam ahead?

As it was, I threw away the circular that was addressed to "The Occupier" with no council recognition on the envelope, thinking it was junk mail. From asking around, I can find no one who has been surveyed.

Myself and others from Powis Villas have phoned many times, not because of bags left out but because the council management forgot to include Powis Villas in the collection when the refuse collection was taken back in-house and no rubbish was collected for a couple of weeks.

If the council wants the trial to be as fair as possible why, when the whole thrust of the leaflet is about multi-tenanted houses, has it included Powis Villas?

This is one of the smallest streets in the Clifton Hill area and - with two exceptions - all are still single occupancy houses and with room to store rubbish bags.

In Powis Villas we have eight parking spaces and there will be two bins. Each bin takes up two parking spaces.

I stayed in Venice this Autumn and there was one of these bins about 15 metres from where I was staying. It was emptied every day (this council will empty them twice a week). The stench was overwhelming but thousands of people are going to be in much closer proximity to our stinking rubbish heaps.

-P Causer, Powis Villas, Brighton