regarding the new bin scheme. I have every sympathy with Ann Prior and her difficulties in The Colony, regarding pavement traffic, and was intrigued by her reference to “consultation” which should have taken place before these changes were to be made.

East Devon District Council will take the view that, as these changes are driven by the EU Directive on landfill issues and have already passed into law largely without our knowledge, what point is there in consultation?

I might add that these changes are costing approximately �1.77 million for the supply of all the bins and a recurrent annual cost for collection in excess of �4 million for the area covered. This is an additional burden to our council tax costs, which, in my case, have doubled in the 10 years I have lived in the EDDC area.

This is symptomatic of life in the EU, where laws are imposed on us and the costs recovered by agencies on which we have little or no control and for reasons about which we are not consulted – the bureaucrats dream!

The landfill issue derives from the fact that Holland has approximately 50% of its area below sea level, so we all have to suffer not being able to bury our waste. By all means, let us decide for ourselves how we can improve the handling of domestic refuse in a manner which suits the UK and for which we are willing to pay.

Another example is the useless windmills that taxpayers/consumers are subsidising to an enormous degree in a futile attempt to “halt global warming”, for which there is no clear evidence, but which the EU has decided we must spend some �18 billion pa for the next however many years.

Once again, no consultation, no mandate, no democracy.

John Kelly,

Hulham Road, Exmouth.