I WONDERED if, in the light of recent publicity regarding recycling boxes, you might be interested in the ongoing saga of black box recycling in Beanacre village, Melksham.

Village residents received pamphlets stating that we would be receiving these bins in 2004, together with green recycling wheelie bins.

As these were not received I wrote to the chief executive of West Wiltshire District Council in February 2005 concerning the non-provision of a black box recycling service in Beanacre village.

The council's reply was that the service would be commenced "later in the year." 2005 came and went, so I wrote to Mr Pate earlier this year concerning this matter.

My letter was passed on and a reply (dated February 9) states that boxes would be made available "in the next fortnight."

A month has come and gone. To date the black box collections have not started, neither have the boxes been delivered.

Therefore on two separate occasions the council has failed to honour their written commitments.

I find it disgraceful that the council can take taxpayers' money and yet brazenly refuse to provide the service, especially in the light of the massive publicity surrounding recycling.

Additionally, I would like assurance that the district council has not paid Hills Recycling for a service not received.

D MORRIS.

Beanacre, Melksham

  • MY tiny kitchen has become a mini recycling yard. There are four swing-bins in it, one for paper, tins and glass jars, one for household leftovers, one for vegetable waste and flowers, one for plastics. Am I grumbling? No.

I have taken the plastics bag down to the tip at Warminster and am there told to re-sort it into plastic bags, bottles and bottle tops. Well really! I do not want my plastic refuse to be buried in the ground where it will lie as unchanged clutter for hundreds of years. But I am too old and have too little patience or room to do more sorting.

Would it not be possible and suitable to use some of those doing community service to do this undemanding but socially useful contribution? We might then have a kerbside collection and encourage all of us to reclaim and re-use this resource rather than fill up holes in the ground.

S ANNETTS.

Westbury Leigh, Westbury