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MY sympathies go out to those who have written to Postbag recently about our recycling policies, and to others concerned about household rubbish collection.

To Val Pollard, of Shrewton, I apologise for the problems with her black box collections and I am grateful for her comments on our waste disposal contractors, Hills Waste, and the difficulties they have been experiencing.

Our own department for the environment collects rubbish from many awkward access' households with narrow lanes, drives or unadopted roads, and goes an extra mile or two compared with other districts, especially in rural areas.

As a result, Hills Waste, get criticism which may be unfair, but I can assure all readers that Hills Waste and the council's staff are working well together.

Issues such as what happens in the event that a large recycling lorry damages a private drive are also being addressed.

In reply to S Levy, of Salisbury, there are supply reasons why smaller wheelie bins are not yet available.

There are also delays in our receiving the slimmer alternatives to black boxes which were required in the city.

I can assure S Levy that we held out for two sizes of bin despite the undoubted operational advantages of the larger standard' bin, and that no-one is playing for time.

To Michael Glover, of Dinton, thank you for drawing attention to the issue of recycling shredded paper.

This cannot be taken away by Hills Waste because of the risk of it being blown all over the road as the sorted kerbside material is tipped high over the tops of the red recycling lorries.

Apart from the inevitable size of these state-of-the-art dustcarts, this is their only drawback.

However, shredded paper can be taken to Salisbury and Amesbury household recycling centres for recycling.

Meanwhile, I would like to offer many congratulations to the citizens of Salisbury district, the council staff and Hills for achieving a 30 per cent recycling rate ahead of schedule.

This gives us all two years to get it up to 40 per cent.

With our residents' enthusiastic support we will demonstrate to the new unitary Wiltshire Council that we can meet our targets using weekly refuse collections.

JAMES ROBERSTON, Salisbury District Council portfolio holder for the environment

2:43pm Thursday 17th April 2008

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