I HAVE received yet another glossy colour leaflet through my letterbox, as did - according to City of York Council - every other ratepayer at a cost of 7.6p to each resident.

Not a lot, one may think, but how many of these do we get a year? All they purport to tell is what a good job our council is doing, when really they aren't.

Here are a few examples:

- Percentage of telephone calls from the public answered within 20 seconds. Maybe, but were the complaints that generated some of those calls rectified? Not in my case. I've needed to call the council at least half a dozen times in the past six to nine months just to get my dustbin emptied. So forget the phone calls - which I'm paying for. Just empty my bin, which I'm also paying for.

- Percentage of invoices paid within 30 days. Who cares? What we need to know is, was the expenditure that generated these invoices really necessary in the first place? Take for instance the Nunnery Lane car park. Why move the exit just five metres down the road?

- Next, our famous Millennium Walk, down by the Ouse. Working street lights have been replaced and fancy new waste bins, half the size of the originals, have been installed.

And what of these strange concrete plinths so liberally scattered around? I hate to think what kind of inscription will be attached to them. I just hope there is no mention of a Labour council or Coun Rod Hills.

David Taylor,

Lower Darnborough Street,

Clementhorpe, York.

Updated: 10:52 Tuesday, April 10, 2001