I WISH to complain about the complete lack of service offered by the council for waste paper collection in the upper Horwich area.

On ringing up to enquire as to the problem, I received a 20-second recorded message extolling the virtues of the council before being transferred to the refuse department only to hear the same recorded message and then kept on hold for 10 minutes before a customer service person then proceeded to tell me that I should ring back the next day when they would check the drivers' sheets.

We are only into the second collection of this system since the council took over from Paperchase.

On the first collection they picked up the paper but took the bag as well and left 50 per cent of the bags still outside the premises, uncollected.

On a recent walkabout, I observed that two bags had been emptied and more than 100 left in the streets - some of those had been out since the first collection, on Christmas Eve.

The council has the gall to print how well it is doing with recycling in The Bolton News.

I think it is time the council bucked its ideas up - or leave it to Paperchase, which can do the job.

Mr L Burtonwood, Horwich