I HAD to laugh at the article about Hugh Bayley pleading with fast food restaurants and the rubbish they generate (November 11).

For three years I've been calling the environment department and various councillors to have a bin put next to the footbridge from Railway Terrace/ Witton Rise to Cinder Lane leading to Leeman Road, to no avail.

I'm told that a bin costs around £300, its location has to be mapped for regular emptying and I have to apply for the money to my local ward committee which may or may not agree, and then hope one is placed in the right place.

The only bin between Holgate Road and Marygate car park is outside the school on the corner of St Paul's Terrace. So someone walking that way, has a distance of one and a half miles before even being able to think about dumping his coke cans or crisp packets, so he throws it on the floor.

At least four extra bins are required on that stretch not one. But who am I kidding?

Education and prevention, starting at schools, is the answer. Maybe the council should be thinking about schemes such as paying schoolchildren £1 per dustbin liner or rubbish collected during school holidays? That would help clear the city streets, educate them and keep them busy and away from other pastimes, such as shoplifting, abusing pensioners, burglary etc.

Good luck, Mr Bayley, I've given up. I've disappeared under a sea of red tape and Railway Museum chocolate boxes.

Tony Carker,

Railway Terrace,

York.

...I WAS always led to believe that one of the conditions of planning consent for the big two (McDonald's and Burger King) was that they had to keep the street on which they were situated clear of debris at regular intervals.

In all the time I have been a street cleaner, McDonald's has followed this condition to the letter, with hourly litter picks, washing the pavement etc.

The same cannot be said about Burger King. I have yet to see any effort made by anybody connected with this company in relation to keeping High Ousegate and the burial ground opposite relatively litter free.

Rather than waste paper, ink, envelope and a stamp, Mr Bayley, may I suggest you ask someone to enforce the conditions of their occupancy?

PR Willey,

Burnholme Drive,

Heworth, York.

Updated: 11:00 Friday, November 14, 2003