The Wingecarribee Shire Council is to be congratulated on the revamp of its waste collection services.

The 80-litre weekly garbage pick-up and 240-litre fortnightly recycling collection is the best compromise and will provide residents of this shire with a garbage and recycling service equal to other municipalities in the state.

The council has left the way open for those who are wise with their waste to have a fortnightly service. They will receive a `significant' saving on the annual cost of the service as a result.

However, it was one of the other decisions made by council that will have a far more beneficial effect for the region - the abolition of the bi-annual clean-up.

While an important way for the council to remove larger volumes of waste, the concept of the procedure was seriously flawed.

Any visitor to the region driving around would be left wondering what was going on.

Here was one of the most beautiful areas in Australia yet piled up out the front of houses were old bed mattresses, boxes and boxes of used goods, timber and furniture.

It looked like Steptoe and Son had moved in and were having a garage sale to celebrate!

Replacing the biannual clean-up with an on-call clean-up is a fantastic move which is to be applauded.

The council will charge $20 to remove two cubic metres of waste.

Some may say that this is a little steep, but in the user-pays society in which we live, it doesn't seem to be too much to ask.

And the value of not having these biannual junk-fests simply cannot be calculated.