Oxford City Council's recycling scheme is a big success - at least, according to Oxford City Council, it is (Oxford Mail, June 13).
Having halved the service we used to get, spent untold sums of public money, littered our city with bags, bins and boxes, encouraged a growth in the rat population, bullied and coerced householders into having wheelie bins they did not ask for, it would hardly claim it has been a failure.
For my part, I don't believe a word of it.
There is tension between the departments of the council over this scheme.
Your own newspaper published the fact that un-minuted meetings are being held between the relevant departments.
That report was on November 10, 2006 and a council officer confirmed that minutes were not taken.
I know why they were not - the environmental health department was worried about the health aspects of the scheme.
That opposition has fed its way into a public inquiry into the health aspects of the scheme.
Let me end with three thoughts.
Before the introduction of this scheme, two smallish refuse carts came down our streets every fortnight. We now have three giant lorries every fortnight.
Secondly, our city looks a mess.
Thirdly, there is now more plastic in our front gardens than ever before and it is there permanently.
A flood of partial, partisan statistics cannot justify this damage to our city, however much the Liberal Democrats and their spin doctors claim it does.
So much for saving the planet.
JOHN POWER Ferry Hinksey Road Oxford
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