We always welcome a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below. This from Gordon Payne. Ed
I took some assorted household waste to the recycling centre at Lynnbottom this week. Most of it was in my trailer. At the entrance, a member of staff advised me that, from 5th June, no trailer longer than 1.8 metres would be allowed to use the centre. He measured my trailer. It is a standard two metre trailer. He told me there was nowhere on the Island I would be able to use my trailer to recycle waste after 5th June.
While I was emptying my trailer into various skips, a council van pulled up at the General Household Waste skip. The man who unloaded this van told one of the members of staff that this van-load of assorted rubbish was from yet another fly-tipping incident that had been reported.
Three simple questions
A number questions have to be answered about this.
- Firstly, why is the size limit being imposed? Lynnbottom has a dedicated trailer bay which can easily accommodate longer trailers.
- Secondly, why set the limit at an arbitrary 1.8 metres? This is simply six feet converted to metres. Is the Isle of Wight Council still using imperial measurements 40 years after the rest of the country adopted the metric system?
- Thirdly, does the council seriously want to tackle the problem of fly-tipping, or are they content to allow this lovely island to sink under a growing mound of unsightly rubbish? They have already increased the problem by charging for plaster-board and other building débris and reducing opening hours at the recycling centres.
Most short-sighted, ignorant and stupid collection of officials
When I lived in France, every encouragement was given to householders to recycle all their rubbish in one of the many recycling centres, with no charges. I never saw an incidence of fly-tipping in the years I lived in France.
Of all the places I have lived, in England and abroad, the Isle of Wight Council is easily the most short-sighted, ignorant and stupid collection of officials I have ever had to pay taxes to.
