I CAN understand council cleansing manager Tony Dare being afraid of setting a precedent by removing extra bin bags: "If we take an extra bag for one person then everyone will want us to do it," (Shuttle, February 22).

But I do wonder how much extra it costs to process the ensuing complaints and then send out an additional crew to collect what his first team have been instructed to leave behind.

Surely Wyre Forest District Council need to investigate why "everyone" locally has a greater mass of rubbish than the internal capacity of their wheelie bins.

Part of the answer must lie with inadequate incentives for recycling - SKI campaigners please note:

I lived in Colchester. We had twice monthly door-to-door collections of paper and card.

I lived in Kent. We had weekly door-to-door collections of bottles and cans. I believe now there is also a paper collection.

I lived in Taunton. We had fortnightly collections of green and garden waste for shredding and were able to buy back the excellent compost at an exceptionally good price.

If every individual householder in the area were to drive to Hoobrook (the only place to take all the above) then the concomitant rise in traffic volume would not only cripple the road's infrastructure, but also cause thousands of extra car journeys. This would lead to an unacceptable increase in overall fuel consumption and incalculable concentrations of exhaust fumes in the Spennells Valley.

Re-opening the old dump in Stourport Road will only spread the same problem a little more thinly.

The cost of us all driving our recycling away is incommensurate to the saving Tony Dare makes by not picking up a bag.

CM SMITH

Stourbridge Road

Kidderminster