SO STROUD’S recycling rates were by far the worst in Gloucestershire, to quote the SNJ.

And the response of Stroud District Council was to blame the previous contractor Veolia instead of individuals at SDC being prepared to take responsibility but then that it is a feature of most public institutions these days ie blame somebody else.

However I would like to make a suggestion as to how to increase recycling, and that is how about making recycling easier instead of making it difficult?

Most people in Stroud want to recycle but become frustrated by the machinations of SDC to the point where they wonder if SDC wants them to recycle.

For instance, a few years ago there used to be recycling containers in London Road car park near Waitrose which proved to be popular and well used. by people using the car park and Waitrose.

The response of SDC – in the name of efficiency – was to remove these recycling containers and direct people to Cheapside where there were larger containers.

We now have the situation where these large containers for paper, glass, plastic and cans have now been removed from Cheapside – doubtless in the name of efficiency – and direct people for whom kerbside recycling is not an option to Cainscross.

Painswick used to have similar containers to those that used to be in London Road car park but these were replaced by the larger ones but proved to be impractical and so were removed without anything replacing them with an automatic assumption by SDC that everyone in Painswick can do kerbside recycling.

Of course, you could recycle at Tesco in Stratford Road but having looked at the site recently it was overflowing due to people having nowhere else to recycle if they do not want the expensive burden of having to drive miles to a recycling centre – does SDC not realise that we are living in hard times and that their actions are making it hard and expensive to recycle.

On top of that, the management at Tesco may decide to get rid of the recycling facility because of the mess and fly-tipping there and I would not blame them one bit for doing so.

Now SDC are about to bring in their new collection system, citing that it will increase such rates but that remains to be seen.

In the meantime, I daily see mattresses, furniture etc dumped in the town due to the new policy of charging to remove bulky items.

There used to be a saying that people get the council they deserve but here I am really struggling to work out what the people of Stroud have done so wrong that SDC are punishing us with this revised refuse collection.

Finally, I would say to SDC that you need to recycle by consent and not recycle by coercion, which SDC seems intent on.

Huw Niland

Stroud