IT WAS pleasing to read that the recycling system was working well' in the letter of January 22 from Geoff Derham, Head of Waste at City of York Council.

In reply to a column by Sue Nelson, Mr Derham was stated that we are now recycling 43.63 per cent of waste in York.

However after a bit of research it appears this figure is disappointing. Using figures quoted by the cabinet member of the time (The Press, March 11, 2013) we were recycling 46.28 per cent of waste in 2012/13 and working well towards a 50 per cent target rate.

This is an appalling decrease of six per cent with the additional burden on the council tax payer with the landfill tax that will be incurred by this decrease.

I would very much like to hear from the 'cabinet member ' responsible for recycling (not a council-employed officer, as is usually the case when there is bad news to address) as to why we have had such a dramatic fall in recycling rates, how much this is costing us extra and what is being done to reverse this decline.

When we have times of austerity, we cannot afford to throw money away.

David Fish, Mulberry Drive, Haxby, York.