Reading Council has denied that the two week collection of food waste has led to an explosion in maggots. Lead Councillor for the environment Steve Waite told us: "Our research shows that after two weeks, bins contain less bacteria and can be safely used to transport young children. You must all be imagining it. But if your bin is infested with maggots, why not ask Martin Salter to pop around to pick up some fish bait? He'll collect from both West and East Reading."

We asked how many complaints the council had received from residents and were told by Council spokesman Oscar Mortali: "There have been no complaints. I've checked our call centre stats quite meticulously and under 'Bins' we had no calls recorded in the last six months. 'Other' was running at 150 a day, but we don't keep records about what those are about. I also checked emails and because of council policy to delete every email received so we don't have to release them under the Freedom of Information Act, I can can confirm that we've received no emails on the subject either."