DICK TURPIN WORE A MASK...

IN response of Mr Atkinson article of last week (‘£30 fee will see more tipping’, Letters July 21) I totally agree.

Looking at the bigger picture, we are having a charge of £30 for the year for green waste collection.

Well, we have a collection for six months only, from April to October.

The council has decided to put this in place as from the beginning of August, so in fact we are only getting three months service this year.

March each year I receive a statement of where the council spend the council tax money where it shows a breakdown of the services we pay for – £34m goes on refuge collection.

This year we had a increase of 6 per cent to help pay for social care.

This despite the government increasing National Insurance contributions to help pay for the care.

I pay nearly £1,313 a year for those services that the council provide – police service, fire service, and refuge collection.

The implementation of this scheme is going to raise something in the region of £20 to £25m.

How can they justify this?

Mr Atkinson was correct when he mentioned fly-tipping – most boroughs have this problem and it will definitely increase the problem, which is going to cost more to clean up the mess.

More to the point it’s the way the council has gone about informing the residents of this change, with very little notice.

This is a decision that has not been dreamt up overnight – why weren’t we informed back in February when most of the residents received their statement?

Most people I’ve spoken to are extremely angry and will not participate in the scheme.

Even Dick Turpin wore a mask. S Cox, Via email