WE all know people should be sorting out their rubbish properly to minimise the amount that has to go to landfill.

It is in all our interests to make an effort because the penalties, which will soon be imposed on local authorities where recycling levels are not up to scratch, will inevitably be passed on in the form of higher council tax rates.

Those who try to cheat the system and steal extra bins from their neighbours should be tracked down and brought to book for their actions too.

We’ve all got to produce less non-recyclable waste or future generations will literally be swamped by it.

But using a ladder to peer into people’s backyards and see if they have an “illegal” extra bin is totally out of order.

And going in to remove it is no more defensible than stealing it from a neighbour in the first place.

The council rightly say the officers whose actions we have made public were “over zealous” and they have apologised.

But these individuals should not have been told to “check to see how many unauthorised bins are in the borough” without a proper method being agreed for carrying out the task.