There are no excuses for dumping household waste.

How, for instance, would the people who fly-tipped what has been described as "a house-full of furniture" outside the offices of a firm in Barkerend this week try to explain away their actions?

They could have phoned the Council to arrange for the items to be taken away. They could have loaded them into a vehicle, as they obviously had done to take them to where they dumped them, and transported them instead to one of the Council's recycling centres. Instead they chose to clutter up one of the district's streets and inconvenience a local company.

It is already relatively easy to dispose of both small and large items at various centres around the district. It will be even easier for the people of north Bradford from Monday when the new household waste recycling centre opens in Midland Road, Manningham. No longer will the people in that area be able to claim, usually without justification, that it is difficult for them to get to Bowling Back Lane, or Wagon Lane at Bingley, or any of the other established recycling centres.

There will be somewhere close at hand, open seven days a week, for them to take their bottles, garden waste, old fridges and televisions, armchairs, batteries, cardboard, timber and the rest.

It's good to see the Council making this effort to keep Bradford tidy and reduce waste. It is up to the public to give their wholehearted support. If the presence of the new centre fails to persuade them, perhaps stricter enforcement and stronger penalties might help to get the message across.