I have a neighbour who is something of a grumpy old man himself - although he has quite a way to go before he reaches my elevated level of grumpiness.

My neighbour has just done some of work inside his house including removing a large stone 1970's type fireplace.

This left him with quite a lot of stone and rubble which he needed to get rid of. So like the good citizen he is he took it in four sacks to the Civic Amenities Site (That's "the skips" to you and I) only to be told by the attendant "Only two bags of rubble allowed".

My neighbour protested but the attendant wouldn't be swayed from his task of enforcing the rules.

"So what should I do with the rest of it?", asked my neighbour. "You can bring another two bags tomorrow", said the attendant.

The following day my neighbour returned to the skips with the other two bags.

He took the bags out of his car, carried them to the skip - the same one as he had used the previous day - and threw the bags into the skip.

They landed right next to the previous two.

Monmouthshire County Council say that they pride themselves on the efforts they are making to save the environment.

This bit of jobs worth added another ten miles worth of vehicle pollution to the tally because of the enforced additional car usage.