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Binmen have put two fingers up to common sense by issuing an astonishing warning to council-tax payers.

'If we can't pull your wheelie bin using just two fingers it is too heavy - and won't be emptied.'

Bins that need three or more fingers, they claim, constitute a health and safety risk as they could fall from the lorry while being emptied.

The edict from binmen is the latest salvo in a continuing battle between householders and bureaucracy.

It comes only days after the news reported how widowed pensioner June Kay, 79, had been told to drag a 360-litre wheelie bin more than half a mile down a steep hill if she wanted it emptied.

The two-finger policy was discovered by Katie Shergold in the historic market town of Warminster, Wiltshire.

Kate Shergold couldn't believe it when she heard the barmy rule

She watched in disbelief as binmen stuck a 'too heavy to move' sticker on her bin of grass cuttings, just 6ft from their lorry.

Yet 5ft 4in Mrs Shergold, 26, had wheeled the bin round to the front of her house without any difficulty.