It's so very disappointing to have the Tauranga City Council blithely go ahead without the slightest input from the public and enforce a mandatory rubbish collection system onto all ratepayers.

Why can we not be given a choice on this decision?

In my household we have for the past 16 years recycled our rubbish at a TCC recycling depot. Items that were not recyclable have been disposed of via a TCC rubbish bag collection or taken again to a TCC rubbish collection depot all for less than $100 per annum.

Now I, as an Octogenarian, will have to drag four unwanted bins up our nearly 100 metre, steep driveway to the roadway for emptying for a total addition to our rates bill of nearly $300 per annum.

Most of us older people do not want this system of rubbish collection pushed on to us and we should be given leave to refuse it.

To add insult to injury, the present rubbish collecting companies have been completely bypassed, with the contract for this new service being given to an overseas company. Hardly cricket.

J Newman, Mt Maunganui