I concur with the letter by Ginny Sherman, Wiltshire Times Letters September 5, Consultation Sham.

Far too many people in Wiltshire do not know about this consultation because they have not been contacted. By chance I saw a small piece in the Wiltshire Times on Friday, and then made a visit to the Wiltshire Council website.

I am in my 80th year and probably only one of a handful of people in this age bracket who are able to access a website, so it is by no means an acceptable general method of communicating about a consultation. One of our problems is actually getting the bin out on collection days, even if we can remember when that is.

As far as I am concerned, none of the alternatives are satisfactory, although I can see the reasonableness in not collecting in the winter if the council actually has some idea how much green waste is collected. If I have grass clippings and/or leaves between the dates quoted I suppose I will just put them in the grey bin like many others will. I have no intention of bagging them up and taking them by car to the recycling centre. At the moment I have a smaller size of bin, but I may have to ask for a larger one instead.

The point I would like to make is that I pay £141 a month council tax to pay for services which keep getting cut. The Government has put a cap on council tax rises and this is a back door method of increasing it if they introduce a charge. It is unlikely that they would put it on the council tax bill as it would be seen as an increase in council tax above the Government cap and may incur a penalty. That may mean that they will have to set up an administration system to bill everyone and collect the money separately. More staff on the council’s books perhaps?

Apart from their obvious consultation deficiencies, I would also call into question the efficiency of the defect reporting system the council uses.

I reported a pothole in Chilmark Road, on its website; I filled in their questionnaire and sent them a photograph of the pothole and which house it was opposite. The following day, September 5, I received a message that it had been repaired. Surprise surprise it had not been repaired at all and so I have had to send them an email and another photograph. Poor admin perhaps, or can they really be trusted to do as they claim?

Peter L Collins, Chilmark Road, Trowbridge.