What is Tory policy on fortnightly waste collections?

Yes, I know the cold-eyed thug is threatening everyone around Russia and would happily see the EU shiver this winter to show it who's boss. But Derek Conway is still an MP, and day to day life goes on.

The Daily Mail reports on refuse collection in Huddersfield.

After industrial action left them without a rubbish collection for a month, the families of Birks Road were delighted to see the council lorry finally arrive.

But their relief turned to anger when the binmen announced that, while they would empty the households' wheelie bins, they would not take any loose bags which had piled up.

Two weeks later, they were still refusing to take away all the rubbish. And at this point, the quiet cul-de-sac in Huddersfield suddenly became a street under siege.

One man parked his car across the street, preventing the lorry from getting out. Others formed a human chain around the truck while a group of children sat in front of it and refused to move.

Finally, after a two-hour stand-off, the binmen agreed to take all the rubbish and tranquillity was restored to Birks Road.

Kirklees Council switched to fortnightly rubbish collections five months ago. It's Conservative.

So what brought this to a head? The council announced its workers were taking strike action on July 16. Rubbish was collected on July 2 but because of the intervening walkout it was July 30 before the binmen returned - and refused to take the loose bags that had built up.

Householders complained to the council, which offered to send a 'rapid response' vehicle to collect the extra rubbish but it never arrived, says the Mail. On Wednesday the lorry was several hours late. One resident said, 'When they arrived the three binmen refused to take our bin bags so we offered to put them in the back of the lorry ourselves but they weren't having any of it.'

Eventually, a rapid-response vehicle from the council arrived to collect the excess waste. Then 'a guy in a shirt and tie appeared and said, "To teach you a lesson we are not emptying the bins in the street", so we formed a human chain around the lorry'.

'Finally, one of the men said they would clear the rubbish if we moved, so we did and they kept to their word. If they had picked up the rubbish at the start it would never have come to this. This could have been resolved weeks ago if they had just been reasonable.'

A council spokesman said the binmen had acted properly (of course).

'The collection crews always do their best to collect everyone's waste.

'Individual residents can sometimes become agitated and frustrated, and the aim of the crew is to deal with such situations calmly, listen to residents' concerns and then get the job of collecting everyone's refuse and emptying everyone's bins done.

'This incident was quickly resolved, in line with what we would expect of our collection crews. All the refuse was collected.

'We always respond to any calls we receive from householders.'

Here are a Tory council adopting an unpopular Labour government policy - which isn't even compulsory - and implementing it like old-fashioned municipal socialists.

Is this how Tories behave when they get into government? We accept that Huddersfield should not be a petri dish for Tory policies any more than London. But what is the Tory view of Conservative councils which do the Labour government's bidding when they don't have to - and make such a hash of it?