MOST householders rely on councils to sort out the roads, run the local schools and empty their bins.

Of course councils do many other things but, in the main, those are people’s three main priorities.

Given Oxfordshire County Council runs most schools and maintains the bulk of our roads, all the district councils are left to organise from that list is the bins.

Yet here we are with almost 10,000 homes across South and West Oxfordshire and the Vale that will not have their rubbish collected for a month because of the disruption caused by the snow in January.

Fair enough the collection trucks couldn’t get out at the time, but there is no valid reason for these three councils to effectively abandon their service to the public. Oxford and Cherwell have managed it.

The real root of the problem was the switch by councils to fortnightly general waste collection, meaning if you miss one collection then it adds up to a month’s worth of trash by the time the binmen next swing down your street.

If the councils want to stick to fortnightly collections, they have a duty to ensure they catch up quickly in such circumstances.

They are hardly going to be offering a rebate, despite failing to provide a service they charge so handsomely for.