MADAM – Neil Carmichael is, just like Stan Waddington, wrong about Stroud District’s recycling rate.

If it were the case that they were both incompetent at simple arithmetic, that would be sad but in Stan’s case, it’s because he wants to mislead (I’m not sure about Neil) and they both want to score a cheap point.

May I explain: if you collect 35 tons of recyclate and 65 tons of black bag waste for landfill, your recycling rate is 35 per cent.

If you collect 100 tons of garden waste and call it all recyclate, your recycling rate then appears to be 67.5 per cent.

It’s like asking how many apples are there in a bag of pears.

Utter nonsense.

I believe Stroud district sends the least amount of waste per person to landfill of any county district.

A figure the Tory candidate and county councillors choose seem to ignore.Once food waste is extracted from that and composted, we will see further improvement.

We do not need the Waddington’s/Pickles’ mass-burn incinerator.

But we do need the people of Stroud district to stop putting recyclable materials into black bags.

When the children born today are in their old age, they may find living on this planet a nightmare due to climate change and resource shortages.

They will look back at decisions to burn precious resources, whether from the waste stream or fossil fuels, as a criminal act perpetrated by the politicians we have elected.

We must hold them to account and play our part.

Gerald Hartley

Moreton Valence