Good news!  The ConDems have done something sensible at last and announced their intention to remove the powers of local councils in England to fine people for not complying with their recycling and bin collection rules.

Naturally Labour and Greenpeace are up in arms and want councils to be allowed to carry on handing out unconstitutional summary justice to people who put cardboard in with their paper or put their bins out the night before their collection day.

The British government have apparently uncovered examples of illegal practices by some local authorities such as forcing residents to buy bin bags off them and charging for second bin collections when they’ve been missed the first time round.

Of course, there’s still time for the ConDems to cave in to the environmentalists but perhaps on something this trivial they might actually stick to their word.