Illustration by John Sadler www.johnsadlerillustration.com 

• AS we progress through the streets where we live, we are bound – at least once a month I’d say – to come across an abandoned fridge, or less frequently a washing machine.

Sometimes these are left standing on the pavements, like tombstones of our crazy consumer society. Other times they are laid down on their side or on their backs, like corpses.

They are invariably an obstruction to be negotiated by young mums with buggies, older people with walking frames, or drunks going home from the pub.

Whenever I see one I resolve to report it to the council, and mostly I do. But some days I’m simply not up to being told how very important my call is to some organ­isation or another or that I am number… six… in an invisible queue of callers.

And sometimes I can’t face getting an earbashing from some badly recorded “music” while I wait to get to number… five.

Surely it must be possible to set up a communal graveyard where deceased white goods can be laid to rest free of charge in every borough.

They could be financed by a compulsory levy on white goods manufacturers/dealers. This would free up some finance from hard-pressed councils who – at the moment – have to send out vehicles and gangs to pick up the dead bodies.

Oh, and for stained, discarded mattresses, likewise.

M WILLIAMS, NW1