Dear Sir,
Further to the letter in last week’s Newton News about people not paying the garden waste collection fee and instead using the general household bin to dispose of garden waste.
I anticipated this would happen when the charge was in the proposal stage.  When views on the charge were being sought, I wrote to the council making this point along with several others.
One of the other points I made was, that although I did not totally object to the charge, I would prefer that the collections carried on a little later into the autumn and started a bit sooner in Spring. Where I live in Woodham at least three loads which fill my bin at the end of the season are from leaves falling into my property from public land.
Not only do I have to spend time gathering them up I also have to pay to have them taken away and at the end of the year I am left with a full bin of leaves preventing me from disposing of my own garden waste early  the following year.
I have relatives in Newcastle and Nottingham who also pay £20.00 per annum but have collections right through the Winter apart from the Christmas period.
My email to the Council was never acknowledged, but having read their reply in the Newton News I see the solution – put as much as I can in the general household bin as I am not prepared to pay for petrol to take the leaves to the recycling centre on top of the £20 charge.
Apart from all the above points I struggle to see where is the saving, when the collection vehicle has to cover the same route, using the same amount of fuel to collect less compost material?
Margaret Davison