Letters: Where blame lies

The fact is that nearly half of this increase stems from decisions taken in London, not Northallerton. In the face of a very difficult Government settlement our councillors had little room for manoeuvre, demonstrated by the fact that that not one of them voted against the increase.

Across England county councils have lost around £300m to Labour's heartland towns and cities. Our county council's share of this has been about £10m.

There are various backdoor taxes through which the Government is filling its coffers. These include a £2m hike in National Insurance contributions. It does not stop there, with a near 8pc increase in a tax on household waste disposal. The short story is that our money is going in through councils' gates, only to find Gordon Brown waiting at the backdoor with his Treasury tax van. More than ever our money is being carried off to be spent outside North Yorkshire.

To be fair our councillors gave us a choice, telling us the increase could be limited to 9.5pc by cutting services. The public consultation showed that people felt different, and that services should be protected.

We cannot avoid the fact that good services have to be paid for. For example, our education service is among England's top ten best performers. Do we really think this has been achieved by cutting back on the number of teachers? Or do we really think we should cut the number of carers looking after our vulnerable elderly residents?

We have to think about what would have been sacrificed for the sake of an extra £1.62 a week on the council tax. We should be angry about this tax rise, but we must also blame the proper culprits. All the evidence points toward the usual Labour suspects.

RON KIRK

Rosehill,

Great Ayton.

More, more

Sir, - I write to endorse the letter from Michelle I'anson (D&S, Feb 7) thanking Hambleton District Council for the visit of the Royal Shakespeare Company to Northallerton. It was, indeed, a treat to watch.

I am tempted to ask, however, about the three years and 51 weeks in between RSC visits. Now that Hambleton Forum has been refurbished, could more not be done to attract other touring theatre companies to the town?

North Country Theatre from Richmond would be a start - its pre-Christmas tour seemed to miss Northallerton. There are many small-scale shows touring that would be ideal for this venue.

Another issue is publicity - could not a monthly What's On leaflet of events at the Forum be produced and distributed to libraries, tourist information centres etc? I could find nothing in Northallerton library telling me what was coming up at the Forum.

B SMITH

Thirsk Road,

Northallerton.

DIY recycling

Sir, - Mr Blackwood (D&S letters, Feb 21) observes that one recycling bin in Appleton Wiske was full in January, with one bag beside it, and that responsible individuals had to return home with their bottles.

There seem to be few of these individuals in Stokesley, as my photograph (below) shows. It was taken a couple of years ago, but could equally well have been last week. I've stopped wasting film on this subject. What's more, we now have 15 bins for people to leave their rubbish beside. And, some of the litter's origin is identifiable, and comes from places many miles from Stokesley.

Surely there is something fundamentally wrong here? Wouldn't it be better if each household separated its own rubbish, and it was collected from their door - as is now done here with the blue bag for papers? Then unsightly recycling sites could be abolished, and taking one's rubbish somewhere else to deposit it in or near a bin treated as the anti-social act it is.

A TAYLOR

Eastfields,

Stokesley.

Rubbish review

Sir, - I refer to the comments made (D&S, Feb 14) by M Slee, contracting services unit manager.

I have just left the refuse collection service after 12 months which I enjoyed greatly. I worked on the Catterick camp round and my experience had more in common with the initial letter Mr Slee was responding to.

The council may have had grants for recycling, but for example the blue bag scheme to recycle paper was useless as our clients simply put them out with the rubbish or filled them with it.

Is it not true that despite all these grants, North Yorkshire came last in the league table for recycling? As to the average number of bags, the figure is closer to eight bags, not two.

I would agree that collection vehicles are near as possible fully manned, but to say agency staff are only used to cover holidays/sickness is untrue. On our wagon we had agency staff for six of the 12 months I worked on it. If £25 per household per year is the collection cost, what would it be if the fleet were kept in good order. Our wagon was held together with lengths of rope.

If the department delivers such good value, maybe Mr Slee could have a word with the rest of the council. Then we might not need the near 10pc rise in council tax?

ALAN BELL

Cleveland Road,

Scorton