The collection of garden waste by the Dorset Waste Partnership [DWP} is a very good service.

However, the DWP, which comes under the umbrella of seven Dorset councils including the Dorset County Council, West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, has to be careful not to price itself out of the market.

I had to think twice about whether to keep paying for the service when the DWP 2016-2017 renewal letter came around recently.

The annual cost for the once-a-fortnight pick up of the DWP wheelie bin started in 2013 at £35. Then in March 2014 it shot up to £40 - a 14.3 percent increase. In Spring 2015 it rose by just £1 in line with the rate of inflation, to £41. Now this Spring it has shot up to £45 - an increase of 9.8 percent.

One might say that a £4 increase is peanuts. But if every shop, service and company increased their charges by nearly 10 percent we would soon be on Carey Street, especially when the current inflation rate is only 0.3 percent. Gardeners will soon start opting out of the collection service if the DWP is not in line with inflation.

With petrol prices lowish, and the waste service not used on some collection days during the depths of winter when it's not so easy to garden, it is going to be cheaper to take your garden waste to the recycling centre. Thus increasing pollution from vehicles and adding to traffic congestion.

So surely the advice to the DWP is to prune its costs. Such a blooming good idea.

Ron Kirby

Dorchester