Sir, As you quite rightly point out in your front page story and comments column in last week's paper, when it comes to altering services as fundamental as rubbish collections, consultation with residents is paramount to any new service being a success.

With that in mind, we were therefore somewhat surprised that you chose not to include details of the consultation that took place in South Oxfordshire on our plans, carried out for the new service before finalising them, and, more importantly, the overwhelming support from residents.

Over 75 per cent supported the introduction of a separate weekly collection of food waste for composting and 64 per cent said they would be willing to accept fortnightly collections of residual rubbish and recycling if food waste was collected every week.

The biggest concern for residents, understandably, which is also clear from your article, is the frequency of food waste collection for fears of smells and vermin. However, we have said from the outset that we would collect this waste weekly to counter these concerns.

Working together, we recognised the benefit of sharing South Oxfordshire's robust consultation results, given the similarities across the two districts. Therefore, the Vale was able to avoid spending further public money on more consultation - when, actually, what both districts need to do is clearly communicate with residents how the new service will work.

Given the backing we have from residents, and that we will collect food waste every week, we are confident that the new service will be a success in terms of achieving our overall goal of reducing waste going to landfill, and increasing recycling by making it easier, and collecting a wider range of recyclate such as glass.

Both South Oxfordshire District Council and the Vale of White Horse District Council will continue to involve residents in the process and once the final contract is in place, we will be working with our contractor to communicate clearly how the new service for waste collection and recycling will work for them.

Matt Prosser Strategic director South Oxfordshire District Council Steve Bishop Strategic director Vale of White Horse District Council