IN response to your report about City of York Council refuse collections (November 11), I should like to know exactly what I am paying council tax for if, as is thought, our weekly refuse collections go by the board?

I have heard that some wheelie bins will not be allowed because they are too big.

Our street never gets gritted in winter and very rarely, if ever, gets swept even by a machine.

If there is anything next to, or sticking out of, our wheelie bins, it is left and only rarely do our councillors ask for our views.

Our local councillor is now the city's Lord Mayor, so he will be too busy shaking someone's hand somewhere.

I suggest to every law abiding, council tax paying citizen of this city that we withhold a proportion of the extortionate council tax money if our refuse collection service changes for the worse.

Oh, and by the way, there are already rumours that next year's rise will be in the region of 12 per cent.

Power to the people!

Jeremy Banyard,

Bramham Grove,

Acomb,

York.

...I WAS interested in the assumptions made by Kristy Walton, City of York Council's waste strategy development manager. Ms Walton states that ques-tionnaires were delivered to every household in York seeking for views on the council's proposed alterations to waste collection and that there was a terrific response - 16 per cent were returned!

The views aired in this response will be used to plan the council's future strategy.

Apparently more than 80 per cent of the 16 per cent are in favour of various changes to waste collection - i.e. 12.8 per cent of the total population.

However, 15 or so years ago I attended a meeting of York City Council along with many residents from the west of the city to protest against the proposal to build a new Tesco superstore - I quite like the store now but that is beside the point.

At that meeting a Labour councillor said of more than 7,000 households in the area there had only been 169 letters of complaint.

It was right therefore to assume the other 6,831 plus households were in favour. Applying Labour's own criteria to the question of a change in waste collection we should therefore assume that 87.2 per cent of the population of York are against any change.

I support wholeheartedly any attempt to increase and encourage recycling but this should be in addition to existing waste collection.

No doubt the cost of waste collection will then be raised.

Tony Taylor,

Grassholme,

Woodthorpe, York.

Updated: 11:33 Wednesday, November 13, 2002