LEEDS City Council is struggling to persuade us all to change the way we dispose of our rubbish. To avoid hefty fines from the Government it, along with every other council in the country, has to drastically reduce the amount of rubbish ending up in landfill.

To help achieve this, green recycling bins have been wheeled out to just about every householder - which is all very well and good, but not a great deal of use if they're only emptied every six weeks. Similarly they are worse than useless if they cause more problems than they're meant to solve.

There will be those who will religiously divide their rubbish - only to find their green bin is full within a week, while their general rubbish bin remains only half full.

So what to do? Carry on taking paper, etc to recycling dumps and hope the collections will be increased? Or dump the lot in the black bin? Then, there are those who physically can't cope.

One wonders whether Leeds has left it too late to get to grips with the rubbish.

It is incredible to think that a hospital bed could collapse under a woman giving birth, and that the mother would then have to wait four hours for the treatment she needed.

But this is exactly the position Linda Makin found herself in when she went in the LGI to have her third child. Despite positive experiences of the hospital with the birth of her other children, she was shocked by the chronic understaffing and equipment failure which she says was apparent third time round.

Now she and her husband have officially complained to the hospital about the standard of care on offer - although they have nothing but praise for the professional and dedicated staff.

No matter what the Government might say about pouring money into the NHS there are clearly areas of concern. It is essential the situation is sorted out - not just for the sake of patients but also for the sake of hard-working staff.