CITY of York Council is one of eight in North Yorkshire keen to 'talk rubbish' by polling local residents on a potential waste management plan (June 20).

Among options set out in its leaflet is waste incineration.

Respondents are not asked, however, if they agree to a waste incineration policy per se, but instead what degree of incineration they deem would be necessary.

They are thus offered no choice on the matter, the implicit and dangerous assumption being that, regardless of their comments, some level of waste incineration will take place anyway.

Real debate on the issue has to be found elsewhere.

Safety concerns posed by the incineration plant in Sheffield, and substantial public opposition over similar facilities proposed for Hull and Grimsby have been widely reported.

Such a contentious item as this overshadows other proposals in the discussion document, the general tone of which is so arbitrary that it smacks more of a lottery than of a serious attempt to address a crucial county-wide environmental issue.

I for one will definitely not be incinerating this leaflet.

I intend to recycle it - straight into the nearest wastepaper basket.

Dr K Davis,

Mason's Court,

Cockermouth, Cumbria.

...WITH reference to the letter about recycling (June 20), just over a year ago I had a letter published in the Evening Press about the same subject.

I expressed annoyance that the tip on Beckfield Lane was not opening for the advertised, extended summer hours, despite the obvious need.

This summer the same story applies. Beckfield Lane is often blocked in both directions by traffic trying to enter the tip.

There are no longer any facilities for recycling glass, and the 'green' skips have been unavailable every time I have visited the tip.

To add insult to injury, the council choose to empty the skips during the four-hour period that the tip is actually open on Saturdays and Sundays - further reducing the already extremely limited time.

There may well be a lot of places to recycle papers, or glass in York, but there is only one plastic recycling facility, for which I have to drive into the centre of town, thus defeating the point of recycling in the first place.

Why is there not more kerbside recycling?

The UK lags behind the rest of the western world for recycling anyhow - how embarrassing is it that York lags behind even that poor example?

Hilary McElroy,

Beckfield Lane, York.

Updated: 10:34 Wednesday, July 04, 2001