It is the most basic of council services, at or near the top of any resident’s list of priorities – collecting the rubbish bins.

Increasingly it is becoming a DIY operation. In the Shropshire Council area, cardboard collections are to be axed next month, with new industry rules about what can be mixed for compost being blamed.

Householders will not be allowed to put cardboard in their green bin.

So what should they do? It is being suggested that they might like to take their cardboard to one of the council’s household recycling centres.

You may have noticed that that solution thrusts the onus of disposal from the council and its waste contractor on to the people who pay their council taxes in the expectation of getting a service.

What should and could be easy is now a great bother (except to the council). Some may think they may as well burn the cardboard and save themselves the trouble – and no doubt get the environmental health police wagging their fingers at them.

Householders in Telford & Wrekin will be reading this with a puzzled frown. They have a separate blue bag dedicated for cardboard collection, and this has been the case for quite a while.

Shropshire bosses can hardly fail to be aware of the fact, which makes you wonder why they have not themselves seen the merits of this simple and obvious solution.

While it may seem easier and cheaper from the council’s point of view to force householders to load their cars and make a journey, in doing so they will be doing what should be the council’s job.

Will the council be offering a council tax reduction then?

Fitting end to dictator:

A gruesome end for a grotesque figure, a tyrant who brought misery to countless people in Libya, in Britain, and around the world.

Born in Sirte, died in Sirte, a fitting demise for a brutal dictator who oppressed his citizens and sponsored international terrorism.

There will be few within the community of civilised nations who mourn the passing of Gaddafi, whose fate has overtones of that of Mussolini and Ceausescu.

Libya, the country under his iron rule until the February uprising, now begins a new chapter in its history, thanks to the intervention of Nato in a mission spearheaded by British and French jets and warships.

It would be a brave person to predict with certainty what will happen now.

The country is without institutions, justice system, or effective all-national government, and is swarming with diverse armed militias who are now rebels without a cause and will all be expecting some slice of the victory cake in recognition of the roles they have played.

A dark shadow has been lifted from across a nation but it is awaking to a new and uncertain dawn.