SIR – As a member of Bradford Council, I hope that residents had a Merry Christmas and wish them a Happy New Year, while starting the year with a rare apology on behalf of the Council.

I appear to have fallen lucky in previous years, as Christmas and New Year must have fallen on convenient days for people where I live – until now, that is.

This year both Christmas and New Year’s Day fell on a Tuesday, which is the day we have our refuse collected.

It would appear that despite both of these holidays falling on the same day of consecutive weeks, the Council had no plan in place to deal with missed collections.

While this would be less than ideal at anytime, the festive season is more problematic, as households have more waste to dispose of.

I would like to apologise to those affected. Personally I would have thought that the council has had enough time, pretty much forever, to implement a strategy to see our bins emptied adequately and I can only apologise while sharing residents’ exasperation at the situation

Coun Glen Miller, leader of the Conservative Group, Bradford Council