AM I alone in finding it tricky to reverse into a parking space at the Churchfields tip – sorry, household recycling centre?

And before anyone makes any tired jokes about women drivers – don’t, because my sense of humour has been severely strained by repeated trips to this ‘facility’ during a major clearout.

I don’t know when it was built, but it wasn’t with the modern 4x4 in mind.

My car’s not one of those nippy little numbers that turns on a sixpence. When the world and his wife are emptying their garden rubbish, there’s precious little room to swing round and back into a narrow space between other vehicles.

Here’s a tip for Wiltshire from me – build a bigger one!

While we’re on the subject, we’re all supposed to ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’. So why can’t tip users take away other folk’s unwanted belongings?

Several times lately we’ve been to a tip in Dorset. It’s small.

But it has an area where people can leave surplus stuff for others to help themselves. Recipients make a token payment which I believe goes to good causes.

If things aren’t rehomed after a day or two, they’re binned.

In Salisbury I’ve seen loads of small items that someone might appreciate just chucked into the landfill skip. The Trussell Trust has cottoned on to this, and I’m sure its shop, cannily sited on the corner of Stephenson Road, diverts lots of furniture.

It looks like there’s an arrangement in place at the tip, too, for someone to pick up the bits and pieces stacked alongside the staff hut.

But there’s still so much waste.

In summer, we sit on metal garden chairs with a matching table ‘liberated’ from the tip in district council days (with permission, I should add).

Painted green, after several years of benign neglect they’ve acquired that fashionable ‘distressed’ look.

Another time I picked up a wood and chrome bar stool. After a spell as a perch in a guitar-player’s bedroom, it’s used in the Harnham Handyman’s shed.

A few months ago I waylaid a lady approaching the landfill skip bearing a wicker basket with leather straps.

“Excuse me,” I said, “don’t you want that? It would make a lovely sewing basket for a girl I know who doesn’t have much money.”

She handed it over with a smile. It turned out to be a retro picnic set. “I didn’t know what else to do with it,” she told me. “I’ll be really glad if someone can use it.” And someone does.

Last week a sweet little raffia basket, containing thread, tape measure, etc, was about to be chucked into the skip by an attendant. I asked if I could have it (for the same someone).

“People aren’t allowed to take things away,” he replied. Those are the rules. Big notices say so. Why?

n YOU have until Monday to respond to the consultation on whether Wiltshire’s fire service should merge with Dorset’s, an option both fire chiefs recommend.

Ignore the ludicrous questions about sexual orientation, religion and ethnicity.

Just help save our fire service at wiltsfire.gov.uk/strengthenin gourfrs.

anneriddle36@gmail.com