Sir, - Whilst walking down Church Street in Topcliffe last Friday after the refuse collectors had called, I was dismayed to see vast amounts of black bags and cardboard boxes strewn all over the pavements.

It seems beyond belief that anyone can think that removing domestic waste no more than once a fortnight is adequate.

The ubiquitous wheelie-bins are, even in cold weather, quite malodorous as they contain food in a state of advanced decay not to mention, in some cases, two weeks' worth of dirty nappies. It's clear that the average family discards far more rubbish than the council allows for and so excess rubbish is left in the street until someone gets round to taking it to the tip, which is not possible out of office hours.

Recently, I temporarily placed extra bags in an outhouse only to find them torn apart, presumably by rats, and decomposing foodstuff lying all over the floor. This was unpleasant enough but, had it been summer, there would have been a colony of maggots to add to the putrefaction.

Last week I tried what everyone else was trying, piling the excess bags on top of the bin. The collectors pointedly removed the extra bags and left them on the pavement. There is an atmosphere of zero tolerance on the waste disposal front and it's clear that just because we pay for this service doesn't mean it's going to be anything like adequate.

Interestingly, I watched the refuse collectors wandering aimlessly round the streets on the day they were supposed to take the green bins full of garden rubbish. There was nothing to take. What a joke when everyone had black bins full of waste which were going to remain unemptied for another week.

Of course we did get a questionnaire asking for our opinions recently. Ours arrived on Christmas Eve, to be returned no later than New Year's Eve; the busiest week of the year for most families. The phrase "burying bad news" comes inevitably to mind. A word of advice to the council - if you're going to be sly, it's best to combine it with subtly.

VICKI MOORES

Front Street,

Topcliffe.

Our record

Sir, - I refer to the letter "Make it easier" (D&S, Jan 31), from a anonymous correspondent and would make the following comments:

1) The current refuse collection contract within Richmondshire is serviced by the councils "in house" contractor, the Contracting Services Unit, based upon a back-door collection service. This service is provided to the residents of Richmondshire at a cost of £25 per household per year, making it one of the cheapest services in the country. I therefore firmly believe that the service is good value.

2) Quite a large proportion of householders do place their refuse at the kerbside for collection. Of those householders who leave their rubbish at the back door, few if any are impossible to collect as your correspondent states.

3) All council vehicles are fully manned. There are times when agency workers have to be used to cover the holidays and sick of the directly employed council staff. The usage of agency staff has increased, due to the fact that those council employees engaged upon the refuse contract, were recently awarded additional holiday and sickness allowances to further improve their conditions of service. These additional costs have been borne by the contractor and not passed onto the householder

4) The claim that it is two to three times more expensive to employ agency staff as opposed to directly employed staff is wrong. It is in fact £1 an hour cheaper employing agency staff as against council staff.

5) Similarly the statement that eight to 10 bags of rubbish a week are generated by each household is not borne out by the experiences of the refuse collection staff. The figure is more like two or three.

6) Your correspondent may also be interested to learn that Richmondshire District Council has become the only authority in the country to bid successfully for grants from Defra's recycling fund in each of the last two years.

The three successful bids, the latest of which was announced recently, will enable the council to implement a number of initiatives aimed at increasing the amount of refuse recycled in the district.

M SLEE

Contracting services unit manager, Richondshire District Council,

Richmond.

Assembly views

Sir, - I would like to ensure that people in North Yorkshire know they have a chance to 'vote' on the first stage of a possible regional government, before March 3.

The government has asked us to gather views from businesses, residents and other organisations in your area. They want to know if there are strong feelings about having a directly elected government for the region, a kind of "Yorkshire and Humber parliament".

They are gauging whether there is sufficient interest to make it worthwhile holding a referendum on this subject.

We are holding a number of information seminars, focus groups and presentations on the subject - please call or email us for more information.

We've also set up a website - www.yhreferendum.info - for people to find out more, feed in their views and have a chance to "vote" in an on-line ballot.

Alternatively, people can write to us directly at 18 King Street, Wakefield, WF1 2SQ, to give us their opinion on whether they want a referendum in the region.

This is a hugely important debate and one which will affect us all - I hope people in North Yorkshire can take five minutes to get involved.

PETER BOX

Chairman, Yorkshire and Humber

Assembly.

King Street,

Wakefield