COUNCILS say they care about their local environment.

Most probably do and spend millions of pounds nationally telling us taxpayers how important this issue is to them.

Those too lazy to put their rubbish in a bin are being targeted and that is good news.

If you drop chewing gum on a street, a chewing gum enforcement officer – that may not be their exact job title – is immediately on your case, handing over a £25 fine. Good.

Those bone-idle Asbo seekers who loiter in fast food restaurant car parks and find it too difficult to walk six yards to the nearest bin can also be hit with a similar penalty. Bravo.

And those who throw an empty packet of crisps or cigarette butts out of their car windows can expect to be chased by a police officer before having those litter-bugging knuckles rapped. Possibly a little over the top but an important use of police time nonetheless.

I am now wondering, however, if the list above is just a way of making more money.

You see given that these councils place such importance on keeping rubbish off our streets, I am often left perplexed by their guidelines when it comes to emptying our bins.

Take our article on page seven as an example.

A law-abiding taxpayer had a bit of extra rubbish and, rather than dumping it in an alleyway, he placed it all in a black bag and left it for collection next to his bin.

Did the binmen take it? Well, we all know the answer to that question.

Refuse collectors have been given specific instructions not to take “free-standing bagged rubbish”, but I am at a loss attempting to understand why.

What do these local authorities believe will happen to it?

I am sure a small percentage of people have the time to open the bag, divide the rubbish into sections including household waste, food waste and whatever else before heading to the tip and disposing of it there.

The rest of us, however, simply pick the bag up and sling it in our now empty bin.

But this brings with it a knock-on effect. It means a bag of rubbish which has been sitting on the pavement for several days is now in our bin. In warmer weather this bag will have already attracted flies and will now be home to thousands of maggots, as proved in our article.

And of course by the end of the week another bag full of rubbish will be sitting on the pavement as there will not be enough room in the bin because of the extra bag. And so the cycle goes on.

In the case of Andreas Epiphaniou, St Albans District Council told this newspaper that “extra waste or recycling cannot currently be collected as the collections are at full capacity already”.

I am not sure what this means.

Is the council telling us that its collections are so precise that an extra bag over the district’s population of full bins would lead to disaster?

Is there no room for this bag at the landfill site? Why will there be room available for it next week?

Or does it mean there is no room in the bin lorry itself? Again how can it be so exact?

Whatever the reasoning, it does seem bizarre that someone can be fined for dropping chewing gum when a local authority can knowingly leave a bag full of rubbish on the pavement for weeks.

It is almost as strange as those authorities currently operating fortnightly recycling collections. Surely they should collect such items every week in a bid to encourage us to recycle more?

Across the country thousands of people, myself included, separate their rubbish to be more environmentally friendly. But as the end of the fortnight approaches I find myself emptying cans, plastic bottles and cardboard boxes into my main bin. I could fill a recyclable bag, but the council would not take it.

I know some readers will tell me to head to the tip, maybe I should and sometimes I have, but this is not a solution for the elderly, the ill or those without cars.

Such rules are testing the patience of taxpayers who may well visit the dark side one day and partake in a spot of fly-tipping.

No doubt they will be hit with a large fine, but at least they will be rid of their rubbish.

Our Community Gold Awards have really caught the imagination of the public. All of our winners have been well deserved and backed by a number of supporters.

But our latest winner Reg Law (see page 14) appears to be in a category of his own when it comes to backers.

The Review’s newsdesk has been inundated with emails, texts and calls from people wanting to register their support for him.

At 88-years-old, Reg is the oldest crimebuster in the city and has recruited thousands of people to join St Albans Neighbourhood Watch scheme.

Our campaign, in conjunction with solicitors Debenhams Ottaway, is aimed at hailing our district’s unsung heroes and all of our winners deserve our thanks.

When it comes to championing someone, the Review only wants to be associated with people who make a real difference to our community and sometimes those who go about their work quietly are the ones who we owe the most to.