I wrote to Hills recycling three weeks ago with concerns about the queues at the recycling centre on Canal Industrial Estate.

I had a reply from Henry Newbery who answered swiftly and honestly and with his facts and I would like to make the following points please.

I live less than a mile from the centre in Staverton and in the seven years we have been here there have always been queues on the roads outside. But they have become much worse with the new opening days and hours.

Firstly, I think the wrong days were picked for closure and if it has to shut then it should be Monday and Tuesday.

I’m sure a vast study was undertaken before they decided to close on Thursday and Friday but they were wrong.

I for one work long hours Monday to Friday and try to finish earlier on a Friday.

This is when I would recycle and do the other odd jobs around the house. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Two weeks ago there were queues outside the centre when I pulled up to recycle, but I noticed, yet again, that parking room in the first bay inside the centre was empty so I squeezed by and parked there.

I had to walk all of 50 yards, twice, to carry my recycling to the end, most popular, bay of the three.

It was then I noticed that only two cars were parked in this third bay because another driver was waiting to get into bay two, blocking the way to bay three.

I would guess that another 10 cars could have got off the road and into the centre if drivers were not too lazy to walk a few metres with their rubbish. And that is a huge problem.

People insist on getting to within a foot of the required skip. I raised these issues with Henry, asking if one of their staff could not help to direct the traffic to the nearest free parking spot but the answer was no. Why? Well, reading between the lines, because people can’t be trusted to keep to walkways, and drivers can’t be trusted to drive safely and this results in “near misses”.

We’ve all seen it. Bad parking. Inability to reverse park as instructed, the 4x4 driver thinking he needs enough space to park a Challenger tank.

So, yes, there are issues, but they are not all the fault of Hills or WC.

Come on, folks, get up and walk, recycle your blood with a little oxygen from the exercise, and the very clever person ‘arse’ that dumped the blue settee outside this week, feel very proud of yourself. That really helps!

Mark Griffiths, Vinescroft, Staverton.