I AM finding it more and more difficult to understand just exactly what I get for my £1,000 per year of council tax.

After all, I've no children, so make no demands on the education system. If I have ever needed a police officer there has been none to be found (probably all busy changing the films in speed cameras). The roads are in an appalling state of repair.

So, reluctantly, I have had to admit that all I really get for my money is refuse collection. Then the council cut that in half to help towards environmental recycling!

Whilst the reduced collection was in operation I have had to resort to taking my rubbish to the refuse depot two or three times a fortnight. This refuse is either clean paper and cardboard, or neatly bagged domestic refuse.

On my most recent visit I happened upon three refuse operatives basking in the afternoon sunshine, I parked up as usual and was forcefully told that I can no longer park and carry my rubbish into the skip area, but must drive my vehicle in -- the reason given being that this somehow improves safety. Given that traffic cones prevent your vehicle getting near to the skip area anyway, all this new rule seems to do is create congestion and confusion, reducing visibility for people moving around the skip area. In my view it heightens risk rather than reducing it.

So, let me see, despite their recent supposed U-turn, the council do not really want to collect my refuse weekly, neither do they want me to take it to the refuse area. It would seem that they are slowly but surely driving us back to Elizabethan times and leaving us with little alternative but to hurl the refuse out of the window onto the street below -- not forgetting, of course, to shout loudly: Guardez l'eau.

STUART EDMONDSON,

Bradley Fold, Radcliffe.