I refer to Sabine Attard's letter titled Overflowing Skips And Rubbish (July 16). The local council provides a daily service of skip collection, and the skips mentioned by Ms Attard are seen to between 8 and 8.30 a.m. when all rubbish is collected from the street. We also provide a bulky refuse service from various localities to keep all our skips clean and tidy.

When I checked the last date we did this area, I was informed that it had been done a week earlier. Most items were bulky refuse, but as well described in Ms Attard's letter, the private field behind this area is left with a little "Mount Magħtab". The responsible owner, on various occasions, was verbally told by our previous mayor to construct an eight-course high wall as stipulated by law, to avoid such inconvenience. As everybody is aware, the council is responsible for the cleaning of the streets in our locality, surely not on private properties.

I have inspected the area in question, contacted the owner of this field and he promised me that he would be building the boundary wall. Since then I have sent him a letter to confirm our conversation in writing.

San Ġwann is one of the few localities in Malta that offers its residents more than 200 skips, but unfortunately we get a few where illegal dumping is scattered around instead of using our bulky refuse service. Surely it's not a matter of whether there is a Labour-led council in place. It's a question of education. We get many reports of people leaving their bulky refuse near our skips in San Ġwann, and when I officially report the case to the police, most of these offenders turn out to be from our neighboring villages without skips or an efficient bulky refuse service in their localities.

I must take this opportunity to invite any resident noticing any illegal dumping to come to our office and give us as many details as possible in order to prosecute the offenders.