The proposal to levy a £75 charge to collect garden waste must have seemed such a simple idea to someone in the Civic Centre.

The published justifications for this proposal have a superficial plausibility, but do not stand up to any proper scrutiny or compare favourably with what is going on in comparable boroughs.

The main justification for introducing the new charge appears to be that not everyone uses the service, but pays their council tax anyway.

This is a spurious argument. It is inherent in our system of taxation and public spending, at local and national level, that we all contribute for the common good and use different services at different times in our life.

For example, around half the council tax we pay goes to fund education in the borough.

I benefited from my education, but I do not expect to stop paying now because I don’t have children.

I don’t drive, but I still expect to contribute to road repairs.

For most households, having their bins and recycling collected is the only direct contact they have with Harrow Borough Council and it does not seem unreasonable for this to be covered by the sizeable council tax that they pay.

There are only two London boroughs out of 32 that charge a higher council tax than Harrow (figures published by London Councils and available on its website).

We pay more (£1,210 for band D) than any inner London borough. Camden, Islington, Hackney and Lambeth all charge substantially less than Harrow.

If you look at neighbouring boroughs, Hillingdon (Band D council tax £1,112) and Hounslow (Band D council tax £1,085), do not levy a charge for collecting garden waste.

Where a charge is levied it is set at a moderate level.

For example, if you live in Ealing, (Band D council tax £1,059), you will be charged £40.

In Brent (Band D council tax £1,058), you will also be charged £40.

In both these cases, the garden waste charge and the council tax together are more than £100 less than the Harrow Council tax level alone.

I do not envy councillors their responsibility to meet the spending cuts imposed by the government.

But I am at a loss to understand how a charge of £75 can be justified when other boroughs charge so much less.

We already have one of the highest council tax levels in London — do we have to have the highest garden waste charge as well?

Lesley Cramp

Address supplied