Please find attached a copy of a note to the MBC with respect to their website "gloat" of having achieved their recycling targets. I don't share their feelings of a "job well done".... No doubt I will not receive a response but ignorance should not prevent analysis...

"Congratulations on achieving your recycling targets! I hope that you will enjoy spending the bonuses that you, no doubt, will earn as a result of this. Also, I hope that the private companies making profits from our labours of sorting the valuable materials from the rubbish are doing well... Bonuses all round for Christmas eh?!?!

So that's alright then?

Well, no it isn't actually.

As far as I'm concerned you have reduced the service that I receive (but not the cost, which naturally has increased) by 50 percent by collecting only once every 2 weeks. Further because the black bin provided (NB the green bin is superfluous; I never have anything to put in it) is too small by far for a large family I now have to make a weekly trip to the local tip. (NB as a hygiene specialist I also know that this is advisable on health and safety grounds... Long term you have created a system that will see a significant increase in pests of various shapes and sizes and, I'm afraid, none of them pleasant).

I really do not enjoy going to the tip... I do not want to go (for one thing the people checking out what you throw away to see if there is anything half decent to scrounge and sell at the local boot fair make me cringe) so only do so out of absolute necessity. If I didn't I would have rotting nappies and other nasties hanging around for 2 weeks!!! I like my neighbourhood; I like being friends with my neighbours. This would not continue unless I managed my rubbish.

Yesterday was, unfortunately, "tip" day, which I approached with my usual degree of enthusiasm only to be told that it had closed at 13:00. Great!!! I was told by the security guard (poor sod... He really is at the sharp end; I hope he gets a bonus) that the opening hours are between 8:00 and 13:00. Not of any use to anybody it seems (at least those of us who work days and sleep nights).

I therefore recalculate my initial estimate; the service hasn't reduced by 50 percent, more like 75 percent. If I were to suggest that my payments to you should reduce accordingly (rather than increase by the double-digit growth rate that seems to be the norm) I think I could guess your response.

Still, I am sure that you will enjoy your Christmas, what with your performance bonus and everything. I hope you enjoy your turkey; if you live in Macclesfield you will smell the rotting remains of 20,000 of them for 2 weeks afterwards.

Perhaps it might be better to spend the bonus on a holiday abroad, eh?

The rest of us live with the deep regret of a system that worked being replaced by one that doesn't... All in the name of progress.

What a load of rubbish".

   I too am at the end of my tether. Half my lane has wheelies and half still use bin bags. Those bags continue to be left (literally by the collection vehicles) every Weds at the corner of my property. For 5 wks I have had bags ripped by wildlife, infested with maggots and I have had to collect plastic bags from lambing fields. I have even collected soiled nappies! Four letters to Council to no avail. Peak Park don't want to know and I have not recd a reply from my local MP. Y'day I returned home to find 9 bags outside my property, ripped open, the stench was awful and contents covered in flies. What can I do? Stop paying my Council Tax? Re-bag the rubbish and leave it on the Town Hall steps? The situation is causing me stress and anxiety with no help coming from those responsible. If anyone could help I'd be truly. truly grateful.