THE district’s recycling officer has failed to notify the residents of the arrangements for the disposal of the old recycling boxes.

Considering the importance of the subject of this latest edict from the council, one might feel this to be a serious oversight at best, or a derelection of duty at worst.

This glaring omission can only be clarified by a call to the Worcestershire hub, or by ringing the number given. Both calls are naturally at the council taxpayers expense, blocking other people’s access to the hub. Conflicting reports variously suggest that the original boxes are made of recycled material, proving that they can again be recycled. On the other hand, it is said, placing them in the new green recycling bin will result in them going to landfill, negating the object of the exercise.

It appears, as if by magic, that all of a sudden lots of items that could not be recycled last week, will be able to be salvaged next week. It has to be said that this sudden and miraculous change of circumstances has been available in other parts of the country for many years, suggesting to me that the council may have been somewhat less than diligent in their search for suitable recycling outlets, or at worst culpable in their duty of care.

Other rural counties have for years provided central facilities for the composting of garden waste, at no extra charge to ratepayers.

Hampshire is one such county, this information was made public by Alan Titchmarsh during his stewardship of BBC’s Gardeners World.

In times of austerity, maybe the council should be considering the efficiency of some of its officers, to use the gardening (green) term, cutting out some of the dead wood.

NAME SUPPLIED Kidderminster