Tories in the Vale of White Horse, like their colleagues across the country, have been told there are votes in opposing any kind of alternate weekly waste collections, and I suppose we must somewhat reluctantly admire them for slavishly toeing their party line without a murmur.

Liberal Democrats (and apparently Tories in Cherwell, South Oxfordshire and West Oxfordshire) are allowed to think for themselves.

The Conservative Cherwell council has been running alternate collections for years, and Conservative South Oxfordshire and West Oxfordshire councils are both planning to introduce the same scheme as the Liberal Democrat Vale council.

We are all doing it because it will increase recycling rates and reduce the costs of sending waste to landfill.

What critics of plans for future waste collections always somehow fail to point out is that all food waste will continue to be collected weekly.

Food waste makes up the bulk of the unpleasant waste collected, and most of the rest of the rubbish we throw away can be recycled.

The Vale’s offices are a great example of how we have separated food and other waste so that we can recycle far more than we did in the past.

We want residents to continue their impressive efforts to increase domestic recycling as well — up to 39 per cent — and to cut the amount of waste we have to bury in the ground around Oxfordshire or, in future, burn with as yet unconfirmed effects.

If we don’t cut the amount of waste we produce, we will all end up paying through higher taxes and causing continued damage to our environment.

Is that wrong? If it is, let's all go to hell in a groaning waste lorry with the Tories.

JERRY PATTERSON (Councillor) Deputy Leader Vale of White Horse District Council