THERE'S no doubt that Hyndburn Council has the best of intentions in trying to enable its refuse collectors to identify the homes of elderly and disabled people.

It's quite laudable that they want the collectors to be able to recognise households where physical infirmity means people would have real difficulty dragging their wheelie bins into the street to await collection.

But while their motives are praiseworthy in theory the scheme the council has put into practice looks like a charter for criminals.

Putting a code on individual bins to identify them as the property of elderly or disabled householders will mark out the homes of the vulnerable to all kinds of unscrupulous people with crime in their minds.

As local support groups have pointed out bogus callers will quickly work out the system - it would in effect be a criminals' charter.

Police have also expressed concern about the ease with which the scheme could be abused by those who make a habit of preying on such people.

Refuse collection teams could easily be issued with lists so they can pinpoint homes without having to label them so everyone else knows.

And the disabled and elderly would not have to worry about becoming targets.