ON the death of Nigel Gordon Bell Posted by Phil Broughton: I was shocked and very saddened to read of Nigel’s passing. The tributes paid to him reflect the nature of this old friend and colleague. He had a unique outlook on life, always able to see the funny side of circumstances and situations.

As a fellow hockey team member, he kept us amused with the various incidents and exploits that occurred en-route to away venues. He was at the nucleus of the camaraderie we enjoyed in the “has been’s and never will be’s” as we were referred to. His contributions at club meetings, however pointed, were always delivered with a jovial twist, which made them all the more memorable for the hilarity if not the point in question.

It is a shame to have lost contact with him after he emigrated to Australia but I am not at all surprised by the popularity he cultivated there. He will always be fondly remembered by those of us who knew him as a friend and teammate. My condolences to all his family.

On Stroud District Council’s poor recycling rates.

Posted by Andyinstroud: Well that just puts another nail in the coffin of lies about how green Stroud is. Of course SDC is blaming a previous administration. Where have we heard all that before? We’ll have to see if they really do pull their fingers out and manage to catch up with the rest of the county. Who will they blame if they don’t ?

On the new scheme to recycle food waste.

Posted by B wildered: Whilst I think this is a good idea, I’m not sure it will increase the amount we recycle via kerbside collection. For us, reduce and reuse comes before recycling. We have very little food waste that doesn’t go on the compost heap. Newspapers and cardboard are turned into logs for the wood burner or composted. Most of our waste and recycling consists of packaging. If the onus for recycling of the packaging for the items they sold fell onto the shops selling them, then we would see an instant improvement in the amount of packaging used and recyclability. What I would like to know though is how the figures in the article have been calculated. They seem to be based on kerbside recycling rates. If that is so, then for households like ours which reduce and reuse will look like we are not recycling as much as some other households.