FURTHER to my letter dated October 9 on refuse collections moving to fortnightly. I have now received a letter from Mark Harper, our MP. He sends a response from Marsha Llewellyn, environmental promotions officer at the Forest of Dean District Council. It states that fortnightly collections will begin in Spring 2012.

They (the council) say they sent out the survey to 3,000 households with their council tax bills. This equated to every twelfth household.

Also 500 copies were sent with deliveries of recycling boxes and wheeled bins during the consultation period and were made available in the council reception area. They were also sent to a number of groups. It was also promoted in the local presss and on websites. Ms Llewellyn is quite confident that a true and representative picture of how the wide community would respond has been gained.

If the survey was sent to 3,000 households which equates to every twelfth household. From 36,000 available it means simply that 33,000 households were not directly asked (or rather their views were denied). Hardly democratic is it?

The survey stated that 1,297 replied. 869 said they had no problem – that is really amazing out of 36,000 households.

It seems food waste will still be collected on a weekly basis, meaning, I assume, more storage at the householders' homes. Meanwhile the lorries going to landfill every week will have to do twice as many journeys every fortnight while we are having to store rubbish at home. In Spain their rubbish is collected every night.

From the tone of Mr Harper's reply it would seem he is prepared to accept the decision. Eric Pickles MP did not reply to my letter but put it in the hands of our local MP Mark Harper. So, although Mr Pickles stated in the press there was no change in policy (that was my impression) Mr Harper would seem happy to accept the situation.

So we are not being given a clear picture of what Government policy is after we were promised more openness and honesty.

– Colin Butler, Berry Hill.