THE Lib Dem-controlled council's war on waste has run into trouble after one resident complained about junk mail being shoved through his letterbox - by the party's deputy leader.

An Acomb resident fired off a complaint - seen by The Diary - to City of York Council's leader Steve Galloway after confronting his deputy Andrew Waller on the doorstep about the deluge of mail.

He told Coun Galloway he was fed up with receiving political mail drops from the Lib Dems, saying: "This afternoon we received yet another Lib Dem flyer through our letterbox, despite having had a Free Newspapers or Junk Mail' sticker issued by the council on our letterbox.

"I even believe it was Mr Waller himself who was carrying out this particular door-to-door drop, which makes it even more bemusing as I believe waste and recycling to be his particular areas of responsibility."

He went on: "I handed the flyer back to him and drew his attention to the sticker on the letterbox, upon which he replied that they are printed on recycled paper. Rather beside the point, I thought."

He told Coun Galloway he was a "great supporter of the council's waste policy" but said that recycling "all starts with setting the right example".

And he chided him, saying his councillors should follow their words with deeds.

"A Lib Dem flyer is not a council publication and needs to be looked upon as unsolicited mail," he said.

"I hope that in future your party activists can be seen to support their own initiatives and skip our letterbox like most other delivers of junk mail fortunately do."


EVERY year The Press publishes a round-up of its letters page. The latest list, published on Saturday included the highs and lows of 2006: the grumbles, rows, protests, pleas, rants, appeals, the thank-yous and the heart-warming tales.

A special mention always goes out to those regular correspondents of the readers' pages who have notched up the highest number of letters.

This year, David Quarrie took the award for the most letters published, totting up 38 throughout the year. The list records a small band of dedicated opinion-scribbling stalwarts, and some take great pride in their ranking.

So much so, The Diary learns, that as 2006 drew to a close, word was passed to one of The Press's sub-editors to make sure he included a letter from one such devotee. The enthusiastic correspondent - who shall remain unnamed - had half an eye on the prestigious list and was said to be keen to add to his total before the year was out.