Sir, I read with interest the letter from the correspondent in West Linton in last week’s Peeblesshire News. I have already had correspondence with (Tweeddale councillor) Keith Cockburn on various issues of concern this year and out of courtesy have copied him into this note.

My elderly father lives in Troon and he is delighted with the service he gets - particularly around food and garden rubbish.

My comment is quite simple: We have 32 local authorities within our small and beautiful country, serving a population of just over five million people, and it would be fair to guess they all do their collections on a very different basis.

Our major and successful organisations would never operate in this way - strategy and direction is top down to maximise service and cost savings for the customer.

Perhaps the debate now is should we have a “national collection service” for rubbish were real economies of savings can be made and service is consistent across the whole country - after all it works for the Police, Fire and Ambulance service.

We hear a lot about cost savings but see little evidence of it with the massive and expensive structures we have running local authorities without really any element of creativity to make true savings and direct funds to the many people in our society who really need help.

Perhaps Mr Garvie would tell us all what research/feedback he took from other local authorities - I am sure all those who objected would be interested to hear.

I am, etc.

Jack C King West Linton