City splits in two as council takes action against pay strike fly-tippers.

I AM writing to say how disgusted I am to see a large majority of Cardiff residents behaving in such an appalling manner. Your photos in the Echo showed how all the good work that has been going on over the last few weeks with the Echo's campaign to Keep Cardiff Tidy has been spoiled. Recently, Cardiff has been looking a lot cleaner and I am sure that your coverage has helped to change that. I hope the people that can be identified in your photos will be prosecuted for illegal tipping.

Joan JonesI DON'T blame the refuse collectors for not going to work on the weekend. How many people would work over the weekend without being paid overtime? Not very many, if any. Those at the top in the council were quick enough in sanctioning their own pay rise. If they spent less time using taxpayers' money to improve their own houses and feather

their own nests, and paid the real workers a decent wage, then they wouldn't have to strike.

I think the council should have CCTV cameras facing outside the yards and anyone spotted dumping rubbish on the pavement while the yard is closed should be fined.

L Culley Llanedeyrn Cardiff IN THE past the Echo featured rubbish dumped outside a closed depot in Colchester Avenue, so it was known what would happen this past weekend.

For the next strike, the council has another chance to plan a counterattack and maybe prove their worth.

When I was a young schoolboy, a favourite pastime in the holidays was collecting car licence plate numbers.

Could it be that there is a schoolboy out there somewhere who has the car numbers of last

week's polluters? Bert Webber

Pentwyn CardiffPLEASE up the pressure! Cardiff city centre was again a disgrace at the weekend.

Litter bins were overflowing. They obviously had not been emptied when needed.

This duty falls on the county council and they have let us down.

Cardiff cannot be vibrant when it's knee-deep in rubbish.

Phil KitcherRadyr Cardiff ALL it takes is one day of industrial action to show what a poorly managed city we live in. The blame for scenes of rubbish and litter in Cardiff last weekend should not be laid at the workers' door.

The blame clearly lies with the elected council and senior management who are resourced by us, the taxpayer,

to run our city for the benefit of us all.

The council and its management knew they would have a major problem following the industrial action and had plenty of time to draft in extra resource to help clear the backlog.

Mike CoxI CAN honestly say that in the 32 years of being brought up in this city, I have never known litter to have been such an issue.

Residents of Cardiff who normally have their refuse collected on Wednesday believed it would be picked up, presumably the following day or, at the latest, Friday.

Neither was the case. A call to Connect 2 Cardiff told me that there was no planned collection until the following Wednesday and that no contingency plan was even to be considered.

To be left without any refuse collection for 14 days in this day

and age is diabolical. Antoni Dziemidowicz

Cathays CardiffAS MUCH as I don't agree with the actions of council refuse workers over the weekend, I find it absolutely impossible to understand or condone the actions of the selfish, irresponsible, inconsiderate people who tipped rubbish outside Cardiff's rubbish depots. On finding the depots closed, the responsible thing to do would surely have been to take their rubbish back home until the sites were open again.

I would welcome seeing any offenders who can be identified prosecuted to the full extent of the law as a warning to others.

G Edwards Llandaff North Cardiff THE people who dumped the rubbish outside the depots are mainly responsible for the mess. And as they created the waste,

they should at least have the decency to keep it until the depots opened again. Just because someone dumps waste outside a depot is never an excuse for others to do the same.

The council workers are not very well paid and they should be paid overtime for working weekends.

Rob LongRoath Cardiff YOU can't really blame the bin men for not working last weekend if their bosses wouldn't pay them. Would you turn into work on Saturday and Sunday for no extra money? I know I wouldn't!

You can't blame the public either. We pay enough council tax already and don't want a week's worth of rubbish stinking the house out.

If anyone's to blame, it's Labour's Russell Goodway. He knew the strike was planned yet failed to make alternative arrangements. He earns a fortune and could have paid the workers out of his own pocket if he really cared about Cardiff.

Meanwhile, the city resembles one

big rubbish tip. Well done, Mr Goodway, what a great advert for a city that hopes to be the Capital of Culture!

Gavin CoxI AM writing this as a very concerned citizen of Cardiff. The refuse collectors did not turn up the usual day - Wednesday - and since then the refuse bags have grown mountainous.

To make matters worse, certain shop owners are dumping their rubbish in black bags and putting them into the street. And if all this is not bad enough, we had some young drunks on Saturday night playing football with the black bags, ripping the bags open and leaving them in the middle of the road.

Wake up, people, Cardiff wants to promote itself as a European capital city of culture - fat chance when the streets are strewn with stinking, rotting garbage, and the citizens have to suffer because the council won't pay overtime.

Frances Nguyen, Adamsdown Cardiff