FURTHER to Mark Hill's letter ("Christmas Spirit", January 3). Where I live there are seven flats. We were only given one blue bag.

On September 19, 2005, the blue bag was overflowing. Hence I put the overspill of waste newspapers into carrier bags. I clearly marked them "for recycling". When I arrived home I found that the blue bag had been emptied, but the carrier bags of newspapers were left strewn over the front door step.

This was a health and safety risk to the residents of the flats, most of whom are disabled in some way.

I wrote a letter of complaint. The reply stated that we should be put on the assisted collection register because, due to health and safety regulations, the council operatives were not insured to walk along the path and up the steps, even though they had been doing so for over a year!

In another letter I was informed by Harrogate Borough Council's head of environment our service is not designed to take large quantities of bundled newspapers without risks to the health and safety of our operatives. What a joke! Then why do they bother to do the job at all?

Nowadays I don't bother recycling (even though it goes against my green principles). I put everything into black bags to go to landfill. Is it any wonder that North Yorkshire is one of the lowest recyclers in Britain?

Mr K Chapman,

South Drive,

Harrogate.

Updated: 11:08 Tuesday, January 10, 2006